FINANCE POLICY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23109, 6 August 1938, Page 17

FINANCE POLICY

A BANK'S CRITICISM ATTACK BY MR. J, A. LEE POSITION OF DIRECTORS NO DICTATION TO GOVERNMENT [BY TELEGRAPH —SPECIAL REPORTER! WELLINGTON, Friday The directors of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand had no right to dictate to the Government in matters of finance, but were there only to carry out the Government's financial policy, according to the view put forward by Mr. J. A. Lee (Government —Grey Lynn) during the debate in the House of Representatives to-dav. "I do not know why some of those directors are still there," said Mr. Lee. "I suppose it takes time to get rid of them, but I will say this, that no control by any inner group is going to defeat the overwhelming authority given to the people's representatives at the last general election to manage currency and credit in the interests of the people.

Expressing Political Opinions "These individuals appointed as'trustees of the Reserve Bank are setting themselves up as constitutional authorities. They are entitled to express their political opinions, certainlj', but not through the medium of a public document. They should get out and express them from the soap box." Members of the Opposition appeared to be overjoyed that the directors of the bank were criticising the Government, Mr. Lee added. It was interesting to recall that under the last administration if a Post and Telegraph employee had dared to criticise the Government, not in a public document, but in his own magazine, the regulations would have been invoked and ho would have been dismissed. . Labour's Vision "The Opposition is appealing to youth," Mr. Lee said. "1 know the manner in which youth will respond to that appeal. Labour will win another 10 or 12 seats. The gentlemen opposite Avill be annihilated and desolated. Youth forms its political opinions at the time when it is awakening to political consciousness, and when the youth of this nation, who will vote this year, awakened to political consciousness they saw poverty in the midst of plenty. They will not risk a return tri that state of affairs. "We vision a financial system determined by the elected representatives of the people," Mr. Leo concluded. "The Opposition visions a financial system designed by the elected representa-" tives of vested interests, and utilised most of the time against the interests of most of the people."