MONETARY COMMITTEE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22205, 7 March 1934, Page 4

MONETARY COMMITTEE

FURTHER EVIDENCE HEARD SELF-CONTAINED SYSTEM ADVOCATED. ■ (Pe» United Press Association.) WELLINGTON, March 6. The establishment of a self-contained monetary system based upon the national wealth of the Dominion was advocated by Mr S. W. Fitzhcrbert, of Wellington, in his evidence before the Parliamentary Monetary Committee. He said that the scheme meant the exchange of Roods for goods, and involved the socialisation of finance only. The ownership of laud, buildings, and everything else would be vested in individuals. "If the prices of everything fell," he said, "and our own monetary system was watertight, it would not affect us internally at all." Mr Lye: Do you propose in your scheme first to institute a State bank? Mr Fitzherbert: Yes. Mr Lye: How would you prevent the national wealth from being determined by external influences? Mr Fitzherbert said that if the monetary system was based on the Dominion's own valuation it became self-con-tained so far as external conditions were concerned. Goods would simply be exchanged for goods. He proposed that all gold in tho banks should be sent .16 London, and be used there through a branch of the Reserve Bank. He proposed that all New Zealand goods available for export should be bought by a marketing board in terms of New Zealand currency, and then sold in England on the basis of English currency. The net result would bo some adjustment cf the exchange rate.