CURRENCY IN DEMAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20889, 3 June 1931, Page 11

CURRENCY IN DEMAND.

MONEY CHANGERS ACTIVE.

COMPETITION IN AUSTRALIA. DOMINION NOTES WANTED. The keenness of the demand in Australia for (lie currency of other countries is quickly made apparent, to travellers when they step ashore at Sydney. The banks in the Commonwealth will buy New Zealand notes and credits at. a premium of .4i per cent., but a purchaser of funds for transmission to New Zealand may be called on to pay up to lo per cent, unless hp - can convince his banker that his demands are made for a genuine trade transaction. Between the banks' buying rate and the penal selling rate there is ample margin for the operations of money changers, whose advertisements are- now a feature of Sydney newspapers, and who also employ canvassers lo make personal calls on visitors.

Thus, a recent arrival from New Zealand, before he was on the wharf five minutes, had thrust into his hand a card which announced that the tenderer was a buyer of New Zealand currency at over bank rates. The traveller has advised his friends in New Zealand that a fortnight before leaving the Dominion he sent money to Australia through an agency and obtained 7A per cent, on it on his arrival. He says he would have experienced no trouble in getting 10 per cent, from money changers. In addition to the advertisements seeking New Zealand bank notes and credits there are others intimating a willingness to purchase, not only sovereigns but English silver and copper currency. Signs of the times, also, are calls for offers for money on deposit in the exNew South W r ales Government Savings Bank, which was absorbed by the Commonwealth Savings Bank when the State institution closed its doors in the face of a run on it. by its depositors. Funds from the bank are being paid to only very necessitous depositors, and then in very small sums.

The pathos of the bank situation as it affects some depositors is reflected in the correspondence columns of the newspapers, to one of which "Anxious Mother" writes: —"I am wondering how much longer the present state of affairs is going to last. lam a widow, and although left, with limited means when my husband died, some, years ago, I have educated and brought up my "daughter, and as good citizens we have always paid our way, until the closing of the Government Savings Bank. My method has always been to keep my expenses -within my weekly income, and apart from my halfyearly and quarterly accounts, such as rates, gas. electric light, and interest on the. mortgage of my house, which have been paid from my bank account as they have fallen due, I have been able to carry on without any difficulty. Now, I am faced with a position which T have never before experienced, and which I certainly never expected to have to face—to wit, accounts coming in which I cannot possibly pay, and threats of what is going to happen, if they are not paid within a. certain time. What am Ito do? -Am I to sacrifice my home, my claim to good citizenship, and my selfrespect and go on the dole, while my money is tied up in the Government Savings Bank 1 ... \ gaze upon my unpaid bills, and their threats, and ponder mv credit balance in tho bank, whose doors are closed against me, because I am not quite a pauper, but likely to become one very soon."