A Word To Australia.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19268, 3 January 1931, Page 8

A Word To Australia.

To the Editor. Dear Sir, —As an Australian native, I would like to say to the Commonwealth: Make silver legal tender, prohibit its export, commandeer all the silver in the country for State purposes, keep your Mint going at high pressure coining silver, mostly florins and crown pieces. This is a real commodity which has a real intrinsic value, not a paper note, which is only a promise to pay on the gold standard. The silver coin may not be worth the face value relatively of gold, but it has its value for domestic uses and would stabilise labour difficulties and give money to carry on. The banks w’ould object, no doubt, but the people would have the use of the money. It would be very little good to foreigners, so they would have to exchange their goods with outside countries and cease from borrowing from foreign lands. Australia has plenty of silver which is only worth about Is 4d an ounce, so there would be a large profit to the State for just coining it. Why should gold rule the value of everything? As a unit of value it is a fraudulent standard. The average man for a day s work should be the denominator of the unit of value say twelve shillings a day as the basic wage for an average man, other things being equal. Cut the indentors out. They are only parasites of the banks, acting as procurators of borrowed money. They call themselves merchants, but they are not true merchants. A merchant is one who brings his goods and exchanges them for other goods —that is, goods, not gold. He buys and sells at the value of the country he is trading with. . We can cast all the gold in the sea, and still be as well off or better. Gold is not wanted to use. Other products are of more value to the people. It is only a matter of barter between individuals that counts —individualism every time and all the time, no collectivism which leads to corruption. There is too much State control—State this, and State that until the individual is entirely lost. Not only that but he loses all incentive and falls back on the State to maintain him, which is a loss to the whole country.—l am, etc., J. WELD.