GREETINGS EXCHANGED.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 202, 27 July 1937, Page 2

GREETINGS EXCHANGED.

AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND. AUCKLAND GATHERING. Ter Press Association. AUCKLAND, July 26. The need for greater sympathy, understanding and friendship between Australia and New Zealand in these days of world troubles was stressed by Hon. R. G. Casey, Treasurer of the Australian Commonwealth, at a luncheon tendered to him in the Grand Hotel by the New Zealand Government. Mr Casey arrived in Auckland on his way back to Australia from Great Britain, where he attended the Coronation ceremonies and the Imperial Conference. “I am not going to enlarge on the events of the Imperial Conference,” said Hon. H. G. R. Mason, who pressed, “but merely, to remark that those who attended learned much that is of benefit to the Empire.” Mr Mason added that New Zealand had long passed the stage when it was considered a suburb of Melbourne. Actually New Zealand was largely settled from Victoria in the early days, such settlers originally coming from England to the Victorian goldfields. Shipping went direct from New Zealand to Melbourne, and much of the early New Zealand legislation was modelled on that ruling in Victoria. It was then natural that there should have been a strong community of interest between New Zealand and Victoria and. although those times had passed, the need existed for goodwill between the Dominion and the Commonwealth.

In acknowledging the greeting of the Air Casey said that on his visit abroad he first attended the International Sugar Conference, at which 22 producing nations were engaged. Australia was particularly interested as an exporter of 400 000 tons a year to Canada and Great Britain. So also was Fiji. It had seemed at the outset that the conference was doomed to failure, but, to his great surprise, it was a success and. as a result, for the next five rears the world’s supplies will be rationalised and prices stabilised. • The Coronation was an outstanding spectacle, possibly the greatest ever seen of its kind, and it expressed sympathy with the Crown and the strength of the Imperial idea. He saw a good deal of the New Zealand Prime Minister (Rt. Hon. M. J Savage), the Minister of Finance (Hon. AV. Nash) and the High Commissioner (Mr W. J. Jordan). He had many meetings with Air Nash on Pacific shipping problems. “We in Australia and New Zealand cannot afford to be forced off the Pacific by foreign shipping.” declared Air Casey. “It is essential that Canada and Fiji should be joined to us by an Empire line.” At the Imperial Conference. air communications within the Empire. Mr Casey said, had been chiefly dealt with on behalf of Australia bv Sir Archdale Parkhill, and in this sphere, too, satisfactory progress had been made in making arrangements for extended services. The new' Empire flyingboat service to Australia would probably start by the end of the year or early next year, and in the near future it would be extended to New Zealand. , , ~ Another point mentioned by Mr Casey was the significance attached to the ‘defence discussions at the Imperial Conference. Alost of the delegates were well informed regarding the world situation, hut nevertheless the plain and straightforward view of affairs given by the Foreign Secretary (Mr Anthony Eden) had been most impressive, and had strengthened the realisation that Imperial defence cooperation was absolutely eesential.