DELEGATION TO AUSTRALIA

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21323, 16 November 1934, Page 12

DELEGATION TO AUSTRALIA

* MINISTERS' DEPARTURE ON MONOWAI STATEMENT BY .MR COATES I.THE PRESS Specixl Service] WELLINGTON, November 15. The New Zealand Ministerial delegation, which is to carry out discussions, mainly on trade questions, with Commonwealth Ministers, left Wellington for Australia by the Monowai this evening. The members of the delegation, which will be absent from New Zealand for about a month, are the Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates and Mrs Coates, the Hon. R. Masters and Mrs Masters, Dr. G. Craig, Comptroller of Customs, Dr.' R. M. Campbell, private secretary to the Minister for Finance, and Miss H. D. Montague, personal secretary to the Minister for Finance.

One of the main items of discussion will be meat. Another subject will be the position of the commercial banks in Australia and New Zealand. Interviewed before his departure, Mr Coates said that although conditions, both in Australia and New Zealand, made it no easy matter to arrange discussions between Ministers, the two Governments felt that the conversations should not be further postponed. He recalled that Sir Walter Massy Greene and Mr F. H. Stewart had come officially from Australia to New Zealand recently. The negotiations then conducted had yielded useful results, and it was at the special request of the Commonwealth authorities that the New Zealand Ministers were now in turn visiting Australia. He was confident that problems of mutual concern to the people of the Commonwealth and the Dominion would be effectively dealt with round the table.

"Events in the immediate past in the world of transport have emphasised that the distance separating Australia from the heart of the Empire is dwindling," said Mr Coates. "In the same way, with the exploits of airmen and the increasing opportunities for contact between Australia and New Zealand, the Tasman Sea is coming to be a mere ditch. Men like Mr Hewett and Mr Kay seem to regard it as just an item in the day's work to cross over. We admire their coolness and their calm achievement

"Satisfactory trade relations between the two countries arc one element in maintaining and strengthening the general goodwill and cordiality between our citizens." said Mr Coatcs. Pie and his colleagues, he added, very sincerely hoped that Mr J. A. Lyons, Prime Minister of Australia, would speedily b:; restored to good health.