THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 1934. MONETARY POLICY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22368, 15 September 1934, Page 12

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 1934. MONETARY POLICY

As it was not anticipated by us that any useful result would be achieved by the appointment of a special committee of the House of Representatives “to inquire into the monetary systems or standards which have been advocated as preferable to our present system,” we cannot affect to be disappointed with the outcome of its deliberations as contained in the report that was laid on the table yesterday. The committee was composed of members of the average calibre of the politicians of New Zealand. This hardly warranted a belief that the matter that was remitted to their consideration was one upon which their judgment would be unquestionably sound. If it was designed by them that their conclusions should be obscured by a cloud of words -they have certainly succeeded. It is to be admitted that their report is impressive in respect of its bulk. It would constitute a full-sized volume. It covers no fewer than 75 pages of printed foolscap. If it possessed a merit commensurate with its length it would be a highly valuable document. No one outside the walls of Parliament is likely to agree that in actual fact it is so. Nevertheless, the chairman of the committee, or whichever member of the committee had the task entrusted to him, is unmistakably entitled to credit for the industry which he must have devoted to the preparation of the report. It is a treatise on the whole wide and complex question of monetary systems, with explorations into such phases of it, caviare to the genei’al, as banking and credit, the gold standard, currency inflation, the Douglas credit formula, and so on. Upon such a range.of subjects as this experts in. economic science, who have given their life to the study of them, might be expected, after a few months’ reflection, to produce a work equal in bulk to the committee’s report. A few hours’ deliberation seems to have sufficed the committee of the House after it had heard all the evidence submitted to it.

In the circumstances, when the personnel of the 'committee is remembered, the readiness with which it arrived at -its decision is, not less than the voluminous character of its ‘ report, apt to create a feeling of surprise. The man in the street, turning over the pages of. the report (if it ever reaches him) and observing the agility with which the compiler of it skips from one branch to another of a highly debatable issue, and observing also his assumption of authority, might reasonably marvel that his pretensions as an economist had not before this been more fully recognised in the Parliament of the country. More surprising, however, than the fact that one member of the committee apparently enjoyed an unsuspected knowledge respecting a highly intricate subject sufficiently great to qualify him for the preparation of a ponderous treatise upon monetary policy is that other five members were sufficiently in agreement with him to subscribe unquestioningly to all the conclusions that are expressed in it. For Mr Downie Stewart in a minority x-eport states that the main or majority report, in so far as it is not irrelevant to the issue that was referred to the committee, is selfcontradictory in some respects, as well as being, in his opinion, simply “ mischievous in many points.” There® is another minority report, signed by ihe Socialist members of the committee and Mr Rushworth, the burden of which is that the State must become the solo creator of currency and financial credit.

We are not dealing with the report in, detail. It is not a report which can be read, much less digested, if it is digestable at all—and it is doubtful whether it is—in the space of a few hours. And, in any case, having regard to its source, we regret our inability to attach to the report the weight which a subject of so much importance should ordinarily command. It may be regarded as one of those reports which will be conveniently and with no avoidable delay consigned to oblivion. Parliament may devote a short sitting to an inconclusive discussion upon it, and thereafter it will be forgotten. Unfortunately the mere printing of it and of the sheaves of evidence that was offered to the committee, comprising all sorts of wild and crazy plans of monetary reform, and fdling 747 printed pages, will—to say nothing of the expenses of the committee itself —cost a large sum of money. The appointment of the committee has simply, for dll the good that will be derived from it, involved a waste of public funds.