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Hokitika Guardian, 24 November 1931, Page 4

The dislocation at first apparent in trading overseas as a result of the increased exchange rates, has disappeared, and commercially the situation has been accepted with the best grace possible. For some time there have been expectations of the rates easing, but these have not been imfi 1 led yet. Tt is now hoped the new year will witness a. revision of the rates, Tt is notable already that Australian financial letters are advising clients to withdraw their money 'from New Zealand so rs not to be caugnt with the new scale. The; fpot is thr«t the trade figures both in Australia and Now Zealand continue to show a dethe value of imports, and with exports maintained there is an improvement in the national trade balance. This fact should assist to reduce the exchange rates, and because it is not, the opinion is being expressed that the present rates of exchange are being maintained by the banks as an economic safeguard by continuing to put a '-heck on imports. At this season of the year exports will increase in volume and value and the trade balance must further impure. The time is therefore approaching for the revision" above referred to. Th° maintenance of the existing rates has proved sound in that the primary producers responsible for the volume of the exports have henefitted, and that help is welcome indeed, because

the man on the land fia:s certainly felt the effects of the world depression, while it has been good for New Zealand in the long run to see imports curtailed. This restriction must have been helpful to local manufacturing industries, and led to the consumption of more New Zealand goods, and the help in that direction will be welcome. If the exchange rates can enforce more local consumption of local manufactured goods it will be all to the advantage of the Dominion, and once the habit were adopted there would be less occasion to urge, as is sc often the case, the need for patronising local goods as an aid to national prosperity.