EN ROUTE TO LONDON

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 148, 20 March 1934, Page 10

EN ROUTE TO LONDON

N.S.W. Government Officials DEVELOPMENT OF TRADE Three New South Wales Government officials are through passengers to San Francisco by the liner Makura, which arrived at Wellington from Sydney yesterday. They are Mr. A. E. Heath, who has been appointed official representative of the New South Wales Government in London; Mr. A. W. Welch, private secretary to Mr. B. S. B. Stevens, Premier of New South Wales, who is acting in a similar capacity to Mr. Heath ; and Mr. S. R. Carver, AssistantState Government Statistician, and an economist.

Mr. Heath said in an interview that some time ago the present New South Wales Government discontinued the office of Agent-General in London. It was hoped that the job would be carried through on an all-Australia basis, but as all the other Australian States retained that position, the New South Wales Government, had now appointed an official representative, not with the idea of restoring the old office of AgentGeneral. but rather for the purpose of reorganisation on the basis of developing trade between Australia and Great Britain.

Before he reached England, Mr. Heath said ho was going through America to make a study as far as possible in the time available of the Roosevelt plan, and generally to study the industrial and trade conditions in that country. After proceeding through America and as far as London, and spending a couple of months in the new office, Mr. Welch and Mr. Carver were to return to Australia. The appointment was for three years.

Rather a departure has been made in the appointment of Mr. Heath. One of the objects of the New South Wales Government in creating the office in London was to have a commercial man as its representative as distinct from a purely governmental officer. Mr. Heath was general manager and a director of A. C. Saxton and Sons, Ltd., one of the largest timber firms in Australia, and he has taken a prominent part in public life in New South Wales. He has been a member of the Unemployment Relief Council, chairman of the conference of railway authorities in Australia, a member of the council of the Sydney Chamber of Commerce, and he has also been on the council of the Employers’ Federation of New South Wales. For many years he was president of the Sydney and Suburban Timber Merchants’ Association. Toward the end of last year Mr. Heath returned from an extended trip abroad. While he was away he attended as an Australian delegate the International Chamber of Commerce Congress at Vienna. He also represented Sydney at the congress of chambers of commerce of the British Empire at the Guildhall.