BRITISH SILVER COINAGE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22365, 12 September 1934, Page 10

BRITISH SILVER COINAGE

THE RECENT REPLACEMENT CRITICISM OF GOVERNMENT (From Our Parliamentary Reporter) WELLINGTON, September 11. Pointed criticism of the Government for failing to turn to profit the recent replacement of British silver coinage was expressed by Mr C. A. Wilkinson (Ind. member for Egmont) in the House of Representatives this afternoon, and drew outspoken interjections from the Minister of Finance (Dir J. G. Coates). Dir Wilkinson based his criticism on the annual report of the Auditor-general, which was tabled in the House last week, and Mr Coates at one stage said that the Auditorgeneral did not know what he was talking about. . Dir Wilkinson said that the Government had made no attempt to come to terras with the Imperial Government in the silver transaction. Mr Coates; That is incorrect, Mr Wilkinson; Well, I shall ask the Minister to table the correspondence between the two Governments. Mr Coates: I shall be only too pleased to do so. Mr Wilkinson: According to the Audi-tor-general’s report, the Government has thrown away at least £1,000,000. Dir The Auditor-general is up a tree. He does not know what be is talking about. Mr Wilkinson: I have only the facts before me. He went on to say that in the case of South Africa silver had been charged to the dominion Government, not at its face value, as was done in New Zealand, but at its bullion value. “ In New Zealand we have collected Australian coins,” he said. “Although they were never legal tender, we melted them down and made them into #ew Zealand money. The Australian Government got a profit, but we got none. We should have brought our silver at bullion price. If the Dlinister of Finance goes to Australia this year ”

Labour voices: And he might, too. Mr Wilkinson: And takes Now Zealand balfcrowns with him and tries to circulate them be will either be fined or gaoled. Mr Coates: Either would be a change. Mr Wilkinson claimed that all Australian coins should have been collected and sent back to Australia. The Government had arranged to import a certain amount of Australian money because English money was going out of the country in such volume that there was not enough silver in New Zealand, and there was no time to get more from England. Should not some arrangement have been made to return the' coin when finished with? Mr Wilkinson asked Mr Coates also to table the report of the Coinage Committee that had been eet_ up to advise the Government. He believed that, among other things, the committee had said it was out of the question to expect the Imperial Government to retire its own silver. Therefore, New Zealand had to make the best of it.

“All I can say is.” added Mr Wilkinson, “ that if this was the case New Zealand made a desperately bad bargain. Is it not a fact,” he continued, “ that in offer was made in New Zealand to make coins? This would have produced a profit of at least £750,000 to the State. How was it that the offer was not considered? It is ridiculous to say that we cannot make good coins in New Zealand. It is easier to make coin than a Yale key. It is a simple mechanical operation, and surely New Zealand is not so deficient in mechanics. Even counterfeiters make coins and circulate them, too. If the Government had simply allowed English coinage to remain in circulation it would have gradually disappeared because of the smuggling profits. At the very worst, if the Government had collected coin and deposited it in the banks and then minted its own coinage infinitely more profit would have accrued.' We need money so badly. We have a Budget' that will not balance, but this would have helped the Minister to balance it.” Mr Wilkinson asked why the Coinage Committee had been set up. Was it to advise the Government on silver transactions or on the coinage design only? “ I am glad to know that the Auditorgeneral is up a tree,” concluded Mr Wilkinson, “ and I am glad of the Minister’s assurance that the correspondence with the British Government and the committee’s, report will be laid on the table of the House.”