SOVEREIGNS FOR TRAVELLERS

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 281, 22 August 1921, Page 4

SOVEREIGNS FOR TRAVELLERS

PRIVILEGE WITHDRAWN IN AUSTRALIA. Up to the present travellers leaving Australia have been permitted to take with them twenty sovereigns. This privilege has been so freely availed of that the volume of gold leaving the country has reached considerable dimensions, ana it has been decided to withdraw tho concession, and henceforth travellers leaving for overseas will not bo allowed to take any gold at all. In making this announcement, the Acting Primo Minister, Sir Joseph Cook, said that although the number of sovereigns each passenger was permitted to take was comparatively small, the total amount of gold going out of Australia by this means was very large. It had, therefore, been decided to make it an offence for anybody to take any gold at all, except with the special permission of the Treasurer. x He added that Aubtralinn notes were accepted at face value on board the Orient Company’s steamers, and he understood other vessels leaving Australia were adopting the same practice. It was believed that sovereigns were taken away chiefly with a view to selling them at a profit at such places as Colombo, where 255. could easily he obtained for each sovereign. Ha did not think that travellers should be permitted to make a profit from sovereigns drawn from tlie Treasury while the Government itself was unwilling to make a profit by exporting any of these sovereigns. Travellers could cash Australian notes overseas at rhe current rates of exchange, or they could get bank credits, out of which to pay current expenses.