CONFERENCE COST N.Z. £10,000

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30712, 30 March 1965, Page 3

CONFERENCE COST N.Z. £10,000

(N.Z. Press Association) WELLINGTON,

March 29.

The holding of the twenty-first session of E.C.A.F.E., which ended in Wellington today after a fortnight’s deliberations, cost the New Zealand Government about £lO,OOO and the E.C.A.F.E. Secretariat about 50,000 dollars.

This was revealed this afternoon at a joint press conference given by the conference chairman, the Deputy Prime Minister of New Zea-

land (Mr Marshall), and U Nyun, executive secretary of E.C.A.F.E. Mr Marshall said the Government had to reconstruct the chamber of the House of Representatives to provide seating for about 300 delegates. “This was a major work—but it means we can use the same seating again whenever other conferences of this size are held in New Zealand,” he said. Mr Marshall said the E.CA.F.E. conference was the biggest ever held in New Zealand. It had “strained the resources of the Government.” He said 200 members of Government departments had been called in to help in the administration of the confer-

ence, entertainment for delegates had to be provided and transport had to be laid on for each delegation. “I think you can say there will be a figure of about £lO,OOO on the estimates this year,” said Mr Marshall. U Nyun said his secretariat had spent about 50,000 dollars to organise the conference for E.CA.F.E.

In spite of political and economic difficulties E.C.A.F.E. had made a tremendous “break-through” in regional harmonisation and co-operation, said U Nyun.

“The conference has been a grand and tremendous, success, and it will go down in history and the annals of E.C.A.F.E. as one of the most successful ever held,” he said. U Nyun said the reason why a break-through had been made was that there had been a keen sense of fraternity and understanding among member countries.

He said regional cooperation and harmonisation had resulted in a long list of resolutions which would benefit the E.C.A.F.E. region as a whole.