A NAME WANTED

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 3, Issue 726, 29 December 1933, Page 3

A NAME WANTED

APPR OPRIATE TERM FOR N.Z. MONETARY UNIT AN EXCHANGE MYSTERY ^ i A man in New Zealand was left a legacy of £50 in South Affrica; he ibrought it to New Zealand and received £62 10s. Wfhere did the other £12 10s come from,? Havje you ever been faced with this touch conundrum? asks "Voyageux" in the Dominion. It does seem to call for an answer, for it expresses in brief form the widely-held helief that ■there is some funny juggling in this exchange business. The problem is that 50 units of South African money ■hiave somehow or other hecome 62 h units of New Zealand, money. The question is a hard one; but per■haps it can he answered by suggesting an even harder one which in tfact arises from my owin recent experienee. It was my good fortune recently to go to Canada, and then what did I d-scover? To my amazement, I found that for one unit of New eZa- ' land money I neceived 4 1 units of Canadian money. Wher© did those extra 31 units come from? The solutioini of the problem can no douht he expressed in a number of ways and with variefcies of tech- • nical jargon. But it is not hoth simiple and correeit to say that the one unit of New Zeailand money and the 4| units of Canadian money are the same thirjg ? Similarly the problem, oif ithe New Zealander whose South African "pounds" may he solved. As between New Zealand and Canada we go from New Zealand pounds to Canadian doliars; from New Zealand to South Af'rica we go from one country's money to another country's mo,r.ey, but — iunfortunaite as it is for our clarity of thought — the urut in each caae happens to he called a "pound". If either New Zealand or South Africa, would label its mone-

tary unit with a distincave name ■whether the "Rand" or the "Kiwi," or what not — the whole problem would he solved; indeed, it would not ar;se. This is not to say there is no problem. There is. What we are faced with, as a reaily urgent task in promoting clarity of thought. if n-o-t in ■completing national recovery, is the need for a, new and appropriate name for the New Zealand monetary unit. "Kiwi" may not be the right term; nor yet "poundling"; but surely some one can sugg-est the word? The urgency of finding a solution to this problem in terminology is foreibly shown by the complete confusion of thought and words that is shown in the report by the Controller and Auditor-General which has just been laid on the tahle of the House of Representatives (Parliamentary Paper B. 1. (Pt. II) pp. XVI to XVIII). There, pounds sterling, New Zeaiiand pounds, pounds sterling again, are solemnly set out, a line drawn heneath them. and, as if all "pounds" wiere alike, the differing 'units are solemnly totted up to produce one misleading total. As between New Zealand pounds and Canadiam doliars, even the most simpleminded is unlikely to err; but when, as is true of New Zealand and Great Britain, the label "pound" is atitached to the monetary units of two different countries, even experts sornetimes slip. iWho then will offer an acceptaole suggestion for the name of a New Zealand monetary unit?