Council Prepares For Decimals

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31004, 9 March 1966, Page 9

Council Prepares For Decimals

Parking prices to baths towel tariffs are among the topics the Christchurch City Council will have to decide in decimal currency and in between will be all the financial operations of the city’s major departments.

To alert heads of departments and their chief financial assistants to the needs and problems of the change, the City Treasurer (Mr L. A. G. Rich) called a conference when he asked each member to report by April 15 on the implications seen at present. Mr Rich said afterwards that a committee in the Treasury would then analyse

i requirements, draft a proI gramme of preparations for approval by the council, and then try to think of every possible snag. “It will and must be a team effort in the best sense,” said Mr Rich. Mr Rich does not think “big money” will cause much difficulty. “It is the threepence and coppers which will be the main worry,” he said. By this he meant the fractional amounts in small change conversions—whether the City Council would go up or down to the nearest decimal coin. By November, Mr Rich hopes to have the change arranged. By the end of the year he expects the City Council to be sending out accounts in dual currencies. Already he is considering installing some dummy cash desks where staff can practice handling pounds and shillings with dollars and cents so that they can give quick service next year. The internal education programme may be extended by publicity for the city’s 50,000 ratepayers and other business associates.