Effect Of U.K. Change

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31005, 10 March 1966, Page 1

Effect Of U.K. Change

(From Our Own Reporter)

WELLINGTON, March 9.

The British decision to change to decimal currency in 1971 had made New Zealand preparations for conversion to decimals imperative quite apart from the merits of a unilateral transition, the Under-Secretary of Finance (Mr Muldoon) said today.

Mr Muldoon said he felt the announcement had been withheld Until last week in Britain for “internal reasons.” If elected at the end of this month, a Conservative Administration in Britain could be expected to confirm the Labour timetable.

“For us, it was just common sense to get our planning well ahead,” Mr Mui doon said. He foresaw no problems for New Zealand in the British move. Both in Britain and in the Dominion the change would have no effect on the relationship between the two currencies in terms of value or in their value relationship with other currencies. Senior officers of the British Treasury, the Bank of England and H.M. Stationery Office—which controls British office machinery—had at the invitation of the Government visited New Zealand to consult on plans after watching the Australian change last month.

They had been invited to return for the New Zealand change next year. Mr Muldoon said the British Government had said its preliminary view was that because those who incurred most expense from machine conversion would be those ultimately to benefit most from the change compensation as a

general principle was not acceptable. “This tougher British line which seems to conceive of compensation only in exceptional cases, may be of political significance. “Proportionately machine conversion costs, which are the greatest costs of the change, would not differ significantly between New Zealand and Britain.

“Yet here we have accepted the principle of compensation.” Mr Muldoon said a belief that because office machinery had a high rate of obsolescence converted machines would soon be replaced probably lay behind the British attitude.

The major - difference in the structure of British and New Zealand decimal currency would be the British retention of £1 as the basic unit, compared with 10s or the dollar in New Zealand.