DOLLAR EXCHANGE

Timaru Herald, Volume CLIII, Issue 22535, 20 March 1943, Page 4

DOLLAR EXCHANGE

Full Value Not Given WARNING BY MAGISTRATE (N.Z.P.A.) WELLINGTON, Mar. 19. Because of many complaints made to the Reserve Bank of servicemen not being given the full value of the American dollar, namely 6/1, the cooperation of the police was sought, and to-day the first prosecutions under the Finance Emergency Regulations were brought in the Magistrate’s Court. Two employees were each fined £5 and costs, and two principals were convicted and ordered to pay costs. The Magistrate, Mr A. M. Goulding, said that the practice of shortchanging continued, the persons responsible could expect to be fined very heavily, and, in the case of a second offence, they might even be sent to prison. The defendants were a cafe proprietor and his employee and a hotel licensee and a barmaid. The Magistrate, remarking that these were the first prosecutions of the kind, said that deliberate violation of the Regulations would involve the culprits in very serious penalties indeed. In the present cases the short change was only a penny in each dollar, but most of the cases were the same. If he were satisfied that there had been any deliberate attempt by defendants to make a profit he would have imposed a very serious penalty.