A CENTRAL BANK

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21333, 7 November 1932, Page 12

A CENTRAL BANK

Sir, —Mr. Forbes in his latest, pronouncement states \vith apparent gusto that the proposed central bank will be entirely free from political control. I wonder does Mr. Forbes realise what this actually means. The chairman of the Midland Bank, in an address to the shareholders, left us in no doubt as to what he thought it meant when he said: "Tliey who control the credit of the nation direct the policies of Governments and hold in the hollow of their hands the destinies of the people." Are the people in New Zealand prepared to place their destinies in the hands of some unknown men, over whom they have not the slightest control? The hope that any good will result by the establishment of a central bank is not borne out by the condition of Switzer* land, where .the Bank of International Settlements, the head of all central banks, have their headquarters. Switzerland, tied to the gold standard by this bank, is in a desperate position, even for these times, and will have to break away from the < declared policy of this bank before it finds relief. Henry Ford, who ought to know all there is to know about banking fand money, has the. following in a recent article: "Money, which by our Constitution should be under the control of the. Government, has been farmed out to private interests, like sandwich concessions at a country fair." In the same article he has the following paragraph, which I think sums up the present position: "This is not a cycle of hard times from which we shall return to build bigger panics. This is not a period of depression to be tided over until good times come back. This is the ending of an era." Wo seem to be particularly unfortunate at thU critical period in the affairs of this country that we have no loader capable of understanding and courageously facing the actual cause of our present difficulties. . When the responsible leader of a country, deliberately states, as Mr. Forbes is reporte.d to have stated, that no Pariia- . ment is capable of controlling its own credit and currency, what have we to hope for ? We live in a motor-car age, but we still retain a bullock-waggca economic system and Government, t Hall Thompson/'