TO MEET HIS CHIEF

Evening Star, Issue 22684, 25 June 1937, Page 5

TO MEET HIS CHIEF

VICTORIAN MINISTER CROSSES TASMAN PODGY DISCUSSION ON RETURN JOURNEY [Per United Press Association.] AUCKLAND, June 24. For the purpose of meeting the Premier of Victoria, Mr A. A. Dunstan, who will reach Auckland by the Niagara on Monday after a tour of five months abroad, the Acting Premier and Minister of Water Supply and Electrical Undertakings, Mr F. E. Old. arrived from Australia by the Wanganella. The meeting at Auckland was arranged to allow the two Ministers to discuss certain policy matters on the return trip across the Tasman in readiness for the opening of the Victorian Parliament on July 6. They will also consider the case which Victoria will present to the Loan Council when it meets at Canberra on July 15.

Mr Old said) that he would take the opportunity of discussing with the New Zealand Minister of Customs the possibility of allowing the import and sale of a considerable quantity of Australian onions which, _he understood, were short in the Dominion at present. Notwithstanding the fact that the trade balance between the Commonwealth and the Dominion was against New Zealand 1 , ho thought his proposition could be placed before New Zealand merchants so that it would be in their interests to facilitate negotiations. . , v -=• „ Mr Old said that, speaking generally, he thought there might be temporary difficulties in regard to the trade balances. The two countries were so near that there should be a freer interchange of commodities between them. Mr Old would discuss defence only in general terms, because that was a Federal and not a State matter, but he said that, speaking as a Victorian and an Australian, closer co-operation between the two was desirable. Though he was on such a hurried visit he intended to see as much of the scenery of the Dominion as he could.