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Hokitika Guardian, 8 April 1924, Page 2

Many critics blame the monetary policy of Britain for tho slump in trade in 1920 but seeing that the movement was not confined to England, hut was experienced all over the world, Ait Beaumont Pease attributes the circumstance to the simpler cause that the expectation of demand for all sorts of goods at the end of tho war, which induced merchants to place orders and manufacturers to increase their output was only partly fulfilled. Others, while admitting this, assert that tbe reaction front-trade prosperity, though inevitable, was accentuated by the action of the banks in withholding credit at a very critical time. ’1 o discuss such matters notv is fruitless. Iml mast people will agree with the < liairmiiu of Lloyds Bank, th at the monetary policy of the authorities in Britain has had less effect on the fluctuations in trade than many people suppose; that the part which an ordinary bank can play in these matters is necessarily rests ieted, and, in any case, it toilows after and does’not precede these movements. Ho admitted, however, that the banks (apart from the central hank) hare a responsibility for playing their part in cheeking as far as possible the alternate ] eriods of boons and depression.

In approaching the subject of the gold standard. Mr Beaumont l’oaso was a little diffident because, lie said, some of those who propose to set up a new standard based oil an index figure or prices—the currency fluctuating m amount as the index figure moves up or down—state that the intricacies of the theory are beyond the intellectual capacity of bankers to grasp. He added that'll drawback of the proposal, even from the point of view of its supporters, is that the task of adopting the theory and of putting it into practice will be largely left in the hands of the people, who lire considered incapable of understanding it. More seriously he said that to a country like oUrs, dependent so largely on foreign trade, and having the burden of a great foreign debt to meet, the fluctuations in the foreign exchanges are a consideration which vitally affects the whole question. He expressed a bore that we may gradual lv get back to our old gold standard, which in spite of some defects and difficulties has worked well in the past, and still seems to offer better prospects in the future than auv alternative.