Early Decision On Decimal Coinage

Press, Volume C, Issue 29511, 12 May 1961, Page 12

Early Decision On Decimal Coinage

(from Our Own Reporter i

WELLINGTON, May 11.

An early decision by the Government on the introduction of decimal coinage into New Zealand is forecast in a letter from Mr D. C. Seath, Parliamentary Under-Secretary attached to the Minister of Finance.

The letter was received today at the quarterly meeting of the executive of the New Zealand Timber Merchants’ Federation. “Many important decisions have to be made regarding the implications of introducing such a scheme, and the timing of it has to be very carefully considered,” said Mr Seath.

“The Government recently sent a Treasury officer to South Africa to observe the changeover to decimal coinage in that country. He has since returned, and has submitted a very comprehensive report on the subject, which the Minister of Finance (Mr Lake) is now studying,” he said.

“I think that we are now in the position of having all I the necessary details at our ' disposal, and it is expected ‘ that a decision on this mat- ‘ ter should be made at a 1 fairly early date.” I Mr Seath’s letter was in ' reply to one sent by the fed- ■ eration secretary (Mr C. R. Gibbs) to the Minister of i Finance asking what progress was being made in the implementation of decimal coinage. The Timber Merchants' Federation is one of several New Zealand-wide commer-

cial organisations which have approved the principle of the change. The National Party policy, as announced on November 1, 1960, included the promise “steps will be taken in consultation with the United Kingdom and Australia, to introduce decimal coinage into New Zealarfd as recommended last year by the widely representative Decimal Coinage Committee appointed by the National Government in 1957.” The notes issued at that time emphasised that al-

though the move towards decimal coinage was a worldwide one and the added convenience of the system has been well appreciated in New Zealand for years past, the main factor militating against making a change had been the cost of the changeover, particularly in respect to accounting machines.