RESERVE BANK

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21937, 22 October 1934, Page 12

RESERVE BANK

Sir, —In Auckland the tendency for sectional divisions of self-constituted semi-publio bodies to pass judgment on matters of State, and to publish highsounding resolutions about matters which are beyond their capacity to estimate in true degree, grows greater with the days. George Canning's "thres tailors of Tooley Street" began their petition with the words, "We, the people of England." Apparently the dumb big majority of Auckland's population suffers from similar misrepresentation on the part of some selfappointed mouthpieces. If a committee is set up to watcii over the interost-s of people who live by importing foreign and Home-made goods, that is legitimate enough; for presumably its members are in that line of business, and know of what they talk and make resolution. But, for fitness sake, "let tno merchant stick to his bales." What is the Auckland public to think of the Importers' Section Committee of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce "voicing its alarm at the depletion ot the gold reserves of New Zealand," au« by the reported comments of two ot its half-dozen or so committee members making electioneering charges against the Coalition Government: 1 And, incidentallv, this small sub-commit-tee's resolution and charges amount to a grave reflection upon the capacity of tho chief officer of the New Zealand Reserve Bank to adequately fill the highly responsible position which hj" holds. Doubtless the policy of the bank is a sound one, seeing thai; it is being directed by a specially-trained man from the Bank of England; and, also, seconded by a board of directors widely representative of the various interests of the primary and secondary industries of this Dominion. When the importers section committee deals with matters ot customs requirements and s<> forth i<> if; within its rights, and probably knows what it talks about. But when it pronounces judgment on a subject of high finance it incites ridicule where no doubt commendation is hoped for. And this section of a committee is not alone in Auckland, so far as making the city s silent sections of citizens share in tlie disesteem of people whose judgment is sound. We have in our mjidsfc far too many emulators of the Tooley Stroe petitioners, pronouncing on affairs o which they know very little, and whic concern their business activities e\en less, while they set themselves up aS , being representative of the com mum y* G. P. Bsowif.