GOODWILL VISIT TO N.Z.

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27642, 26 April 1955, Page 12

GOODWILL VISIT TO N.Z.

Canadian Ministers Arrive

TRADE TALKS WITH GOVERNMENT The Deputy-Prime Minister of Canada (Mr C. D. Howe) arrived at Harewood last evening from Sydney to begin a seven-day goodwill and fact-finding tour of New Zealand. Mr Howe and Mr W. F. Bull, permanent head of the Trade and Commerce Department, who accompanied him, are the guests of the Government Mr Howe, who is Minister of Trade, will meet Cabinet Ministers and senior departmental officials while in New Zealand for discussions on overseas trade, and in particular trade between N.Z. and Canada. Asked on his arrival at Harewood last evening about tiie prospects of Canada taking more of N.Z.’s primary produce, Mr Howe said Canada would take “everything but dairy produce.” He recalled with a smile that the Canadian Liberal Government “slid out of office .in 1930 on N.Z. butter. We have the most expensive Hairy produce in the world,” he explained. “And we have the best,” interpolated Mr J. K. McAlpine, Minister of Railways, who was at the airport to welcome Mr Howe on behalf of the Government. Canada needed N.Z.’s lamb and wool, continued Mr Howe, and New Zea“very good trade representation in Canada had helped to keep this country’s lamb before the public in Canada. Mr Howe, who had a distinguished career as an engineer before entering politics, is looking forward to his visit to Wairakei and Kawerau. Canada welcomed the development of the Murupara project, realising that it was in the interests of the Commonwealth for newsprint to be produced in New Zealand, he said. As Minister of Defence Production—his other major portfolio—Mr Howe is particularly interested in New Zealand’s proposal to produce heavy water at Wairakei. “We finished our first atomic pile in 1948 and our second will be in production this year or early next year. These piles will be used essentially for research,” Mr Howe added. Atomic Power Plant Canada was now starting to build an atomic power plant, which should be feeding power into the power system “within a reasonable time.” This was entirely a Canadian project, but if any country such as New Zealand wanted to send representatives to inspect it they would be welcomed, said Mr Howe. The High Commissioner for Canada (Mr E. H. Norman), and the Commercial Counsellor in Mr Norman’s office (Mr Lester S. Glass) also met Mr Howe and Mr Bull at the airport. Mr Howe and Mr Bull will be given a civic reception today, and in the afternoon they will visit a woollen mill at Kaiapoi. They will leave for Wellington by steamer-express in the evening. Mr Howe was born in Massachusetts in 1886 and came to Canada in 1908 as professor of civil engineering at Dalhousie University, Halifax. He later founded a successful business as a consulting engineer. Since 1935, when he entered the Canadian Parliament, he has been successively Minister of Railways and Canals and Minister of Marine, Minister of Transport, and Minister of Trade and Minister of Defence Production. Major developments in broadcasting, railways and aviation have been his responsibility at various times. He claims there is nothing unusual in American-born, naturalised Canadians rising to Cabinet rank.

Mr Bull’s title is deputy Minister of Trade and Commerce. He said last night that he was glad to be back in New Zealand—he was last here from 1936 to 1941, when he was Canadian Trade Commissioner in Auckland.