SISTER STATE

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 68, Issue 134, 18 March 1948, Page 6

SISTER STATE

Relation of N.Z. to Australia GREATER TRADE POSSIBILITIES (P.A.) WELLINGTON, This Day. Throughout Australia it is realised that, for strategic purposes New Zealand and the Commonwealth are. one nation, and that during the recent war New Zealand constituted one of the frontline trenches of Australian defence.

This was stated in an interview by Mr W. Taylor, New Zealand Senior Trade Commissioner to Australia, who is visiting New Zealand. Mr Taylor said that New Zealand was treated as a sister State during the war where raw materials were concerned, and onc-fifth of all local production in Australia was sent across the Tasman to meet the Do minion’s essential needs. He added that in all his relations in the Commonwealth in both Governmental and commercial circles, he found fhc greatest desire to help and co-operate with New Zealand. The establishment of Australia’s manufacturing industries had reached the point where the Commonwealth was in a position, subject to the availability of labour, to cater for New Zealand’s requirements on a very much wider scale than prewar. Just how much advantage New Zealand could take of this position was a matter for discussion between the Australian, New Zealand and United Kingdom Governments, he said. Invited to comment on recent l exports of complaints of the inferior quality of certain Australian goods, Mr Taylor said his impression of Australian production was that practically all lines of secondary industry had shown great improvement on prewar production in terms of working quality and selling appearance. This was particularly true of precision work.