SIR JOSEPH WARD

Southland Times, Issue 18825, 19 May 1920, Page 5

SIR JOSEPH WARD

COMMERCIAL TRAVELLERS’ FAREWELL. THE EXCHANGE PROBLEM. (Per United Press Association.) WELLINGTON, May 18. Sir Joseph Ward was farewelled by the Commercial Travellers’ Club this afternoon at a most enthusiastic gathering, the chairman of which made it clear that they were taking farewell of Sir Joseph Ward as a member of the association and a successful business man rather than as a politician. In the course of his reply Sir Joseph Ward said he was going to England for the first time in 33 years as a private individual, and he appreciated the freedom very much. One of the things on which he intended to talk with friends of his in the United States and England was the adverse exchange rate, especially as it affected New Zealand. He would tell his friends in the States his opinion of the folly of trying to maintain such a high adverse rate when the trade of both countries must suffer by it. He expressed the opinion that we would have to get an entirely new set of conditions to meet the altered situation, and that wo must make up our minds that it would no longer be possible to have all our exchange clearances through London, because it was obvious that a very productive country like New Zealand ought not to be penalised on account of the adverse rate for the time being across the Atlantic. He was quite certain that New Zealand banking institutions would have to establish branches in the United States and in turn the United States banks should be allowed to establish branches here.