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accurately te a sixteenth: nor to introduce technicalities of
exchange, such as the difference between Telegraphic Transfer
rate and demand rate, 'advance rate', and such like matters.
The demand rate had been hovering about 1/10 in April, 1905,
and had sunk lower, and every one was talking of the "2/4
dollar" at the time I wrote: facts with which Sir M. Nathan must
have been perfectly familiar, The enclosed letter shows the actual facts. The Telegraphic Transfer rate was 1/9¾ on 7th April, 1905, and the highest rate reached was T.T. 2/3½ on 19th November, 1906. The variation is therefore 50 d. in 19
months and 12 days; or, taking the extreme variation as it
affects a person paid in the Colony and remitting to England
by telegraphic transfer, the demand rate being higher
than the 'T.T. rate'.
11.
I said experience has shown that the utmost
concession a few tradesmen have made is a reduction of 5 per
cent. in their price. Again Sir M. Nathan says "experience has
not shown this" - and that "several important firms have re-
duced their prices between 10 and 20 per cent. since 11th
October, 1904". I do not know which these important firms are:
nor do I know anybody who does. The facts are, so far as I know
them, that at the time of preparing my memorial, two (perhaps
three, but I am doubtful of this) firms of standing in the
Colony had issued circulars stating that they proposed to allow a discount of 5% in consequence of the high rate of exchange.
Since then a few others have followed suit, and the discount
has been raised to 10%.
111.
My statement that 'so far as European trades-
men are concerned the price of goods has for long been at the
rate of one dollar to one shilling charged in England' is a
matter of experience: I had no desire to exaggerate: it may not
apply to all goods. Sir E. Nathan agrees that it applies to some, and so far as my experience goes I have not found reason to alter my view, which I knew many others share,
17.