HOPE FOR N.Z. EXPORTS

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34105, 18 March 1976, Page 17

HOPE FOR N.Z. EXPORTS

U (X.Z.P.A. Staff CrspdtJ LONDON. March 17. New Zealand’s main hope over the next few days must be that the bookmakers are right in making the Foreign Secretary (Mr James Callaghan) an odds-on favourite to take over from Mr Wilson.

If Mr Wilson was one of the last cf the old-style, Old Commonwealth, top-ranking politicans in Britain today, Mr Callaghan is probably the last. The Agriculture Minister (Mr Fred Peart) is in the same category, but is not seen as a challenger for the leadership. Mr Callaghan may not eat New Zealand cheese with the same relish as Mr Wilson, but his attitude to New Zealand and its Common Market problems, is undoubtedly closer than anyone else likely to be Britain’s next Prime Minister. When the former New Zealand Labour Prime Minister, Mr Rowling, visited London 13 months ago, Mr Wilson publicly recalled a war-time message from Walter Nash: “Tell us what you need, and we will do it without stint.” Mr Wilson added: “That is essentially the relationship between New Zealand and Britain. It is friendship and kinship.”

Mr Wilson's sense of the friendship and kinship was undoubtedly a factor in Britain’s support for the two 18 per cent price rises New Zealand won from the Common Market for its dairy exports to Britain in 1974 and 1975. The New Zealand Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon) said today that Mr Wilson’s retirement would make his visit to Britain next month more important.

“I shall not only talk to the new Prime Minister at an earlier stage, but also to the new appointees to portfolios which are of importance to New Zealand,” he said.