‘Conference will be boost for N.Z.’

Press, 27 September 1983, Page 18

‘Conference will be boost for N.Z.’

NZPA staff correspondent Hong Kong The ninth Commonwealth law conference which would be held in New Zealand in 1989 would provide an excellent opportunity to advertise the country throughout the Commonwealth, said the Chairman of the just concluded seventh Commonwealth law conference, Mr William Turnbull, in Hong Kong.

“A lot of very good things will come to New Zealand from being host for the conference,” said Mr Turnbull. The next Commonwealth law conference will be held in Jamaica in three years time, he said, and New Zealand could forget about it until then.

“I would say to the New Zealand organisers, go to Jamaica and pick up the pieces from there.” The organisers of the week-long Hong Kong conference hoped to be able to work out a schedule of what to do and what to avoid from their experience “for what it was worth” to pass on to Jamaica, said Mr Turnbull.

Describing the benefits which had accrued to Hong Kong from being host to the law conference, one of the largest Commonwealth gatherings of its kind, Mr

Turnbull said the territory had had a lot of “very senior legal people” come to Hong Kong. “They will go home we hope having had a busy and enjoyable time,” he said. “They will tell their friends, they will have established contacts.”

Mr Turnbull said Hong Kong had received the benefits of playing host to 2000 people “of the sort the tourist bureau are trying to attract.”

“But you cannot really describe the value in monetary terms, and the after effects do not go away after the conference,” he said. “The conference is a long way away,” he said. “You have plenty of time to organise the package tours and so on.”