NEW ZEALAND AND AUSTRALIA

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22304, 19 January 1938, Page 8

NEW ZEALAND AND AUSTRALIA

* Closer Unity Urged HOPES OF INCREASING TOURIST TRAFFIC [THE PRESS Special Service.] DUNEDIN, January 18. "In view of the unsettled conditions in the world to-day, there is urgent need for strong bonds of unity between the two Dominions of Australia and New Zealand,” said Mr C. E. Critchley, recently appointed Australian Trade Commissioner in New Zealand, who is at present visiting Dunedin during a tour of the South Island. Mr Critchley, who has just returned from the Southern Lakes and the Eglinton and Hollyford Valleys, has already been impressed by the beauties of the Dominion, and considers that they afford wonderful opportunities for tourists from the sister Dominion. ‘T believe that Australia and New Zealand have a great place to fill as outposts of the British Empire in the Pacific,” Mr Critchley said, “and as the people of both countries have the same origin, and think and do the same things, there is every reason why they should become bound together both socially and economically. This can be done by closer contact and by co-operation between the two countries in the reciprocal buying of goods produced by them, so that each can be independent of goods from the other parts of the Empire.” Mr Critchley mentioned that the steel'organisations of Australia were making special provision regarding both price and the quantity available in order to keep New Zealand supplied, in spite of the difficulty to-day in obtaining supplies. Discussing the tourist traffic between the two countries, Mr Critchley said that the completion of the road to Milford Sound would make a great difference to the number of people who visited the Dominion from Australia. In New Zealand there were 64,000 Australianborn people, and in New South "Wales alone there were 45,000 New Zealanders. It wafe only natural, therefore, that the bonds of kinship should be strong, and the interchange of the relatives of those was a large factor in the tourist industry. . Mr James Payne, who is accompanying Mr Critchley on his tour of the South Island, has been Assistant-Trade Commissioner for Australia in New Zealand for the last three years, and he will Lave next month for Egypt to represent his Dominion in that country. Mr Payne said that he had travelled extensively throughout the country during his stay here, and he could visualise the great benefit which tourists would derive when the Homer tunnel vyas completed and the road to Milford Sound w(as opened. He had been amazed at the improvements and development of the roads during the three years he had been in New Zealand, ;.nd it was with mixed feelings that he left to take up a post ftftther overseas. In him New Zealand would always have a strong advertising medium, in whatever country he lived. ______________________