EXCHANGE VARIATION

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 77, Issue 6566, 15 September 1948, Page 12

EXCHANGE VARIATION

EFFECTS DISCUSSED BY CALF POOL COMMITTEE INTERESTING AND DIVERGENT VIEWS At the conclusion of the meeting of the Te Awamutu Calf Pool committee held on Tuesday, the chairman, Mr B. G. (O’Connor, suggested an informal discussion on exchange matters. Interesting views were forthcoming though somewhat divergent in outlook. All were agreed that lower costs were essential. The chairman’s views were perhaps unorthodox; he maintained that if we wished to keep the marginal lands in production—which was essential to the country’s welfare, something would have to be done to take the place of the 25 per cent, exchange. He said that if we wanted free exchange we must have free trade with Britain also, in fact why not free trade or a customs union within the Empire. It is already an accomplished fact with the U.S.A, the most prosperous county in the world. He concedes that the 25 per cent difference was a clumsy and inefficient method, but it must be remembered that owing to the incidence of protective customs duties and production tariffs that it took 75 millions of money received to pay for 50 millions of imports.