HIGH EXCHANGE

Hokitika Guardian, 22 February 1933, Page 6

HIGH EXCHANGE

FURTHER PROTEST TO MR COATES

BY WELLINGTON BUSINESSMEN. (Per Press Association — Copyright WELLINGTON, February 22. A reply sent by the Businessmen's •Committee to . Mr Coates to-day says that they have already directed attention to fine fact that exchange depreciation jg. very liable to . affect . the Jnarkftfc.nfpj:, %'a,, export, ’J’his js particularly likely tp . happen, they think, in the case of a country such afi this whose only, important.-market .at present i« gj.ii tied. : When (sellers are in a weak position, and; buyers, were in a-strong one, there, was a tendency for any -export bounty fb pass to the buyers in reduced sale values. They do. pot suppose that it will jbe contested that the exchange depreciation policy ..is not only to give a bounty to exporters but also to impose serious' handicap on British manufacturers exporting to New Zealand

It , s eems only natural -that the British fanners should rc.-ent the .dumpb-.g on the home market of- • bounty-fed dairy produce at less than file cost of production. While the fact of exchange depreciation in reducing British exp-m-s. will, at, th 0 same, time, deprive us. of sympathy of British industrialists. and incline them, to less sympathetic consideration to the demands.-of the',, own farmers, it. is only -natural that such a situation should be created. It was clearly foreseen and publicly expressed b.v tile Committed on previous occasions, and they think -1-hat a serl6lis load of responsibility lies on the \ shoulder . of the Government- for bringing about such a. situation in whicli the sympathies of the British market, both import and export, are being so disastrously alienated. In these circumstances the committee, consider that, in fighting this issue, they are acting in the interests of the country, and are endeavouring to counterbalance what they think is a wrong method of assisting the primary producer. .