MR. LEFEAUX'S POSITION

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23471, 7 October 1939, Page 10

MR. LEFEAUX'S POSITION

What is to be the form of management of the Reserve Bank under the amending legislation that is now being rushed through Parliament with every semblance of guilty haste? That question was very properly posed in the House of Representatives yesterday by Mr. Forbes and other speakers from the Opposition side. Ever since its incorporation in 1934, the bank has been under the skilled management of Mr. Leslie Lefeaux, an acknowledged expert meticulously trained in the science of central banking at the greatest institution of its kind in the world, the Bank of England. Much of Mr. Lefeaux's original authority was lost when the present Government amended the Reserve Bank Act in 1936, but, in spite of his opposition to the changes thus enacted, the Governor of the bank stayed at his post, manifestly in the hope that his expert advice would keep the enthusiastic amateurs among the Labour politicians from blundering into pitfalls. How hard Mr. Lefeaux has fought to preserve some remnant of sanity in New Zealand's finances will probably never be known, but now the last vestige of his authority is to be taken from him. Under the new bill he must be prepared to act as a rubber stamp for a Minister who has a greater respect for doctrinaire theories than for hard-earned experience, Whether or not Mr. Lefeaux will choose to continue in office on these conditions is not known. If he does not so choose, the responsibility will be on the Government for depriving Nefr Zealand of the services of an expert adviser whose counsels are needed more to-day than ever before.