PACIFIC COMMISSION

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22626, 1 May 1948, Page 5

PACIFIC COMMISSION

MEETING ON MAY 11 VENUE IN SYDNEY (P.A.) WELLINGTON, April 30. The Prime Minister, Mr.. P. Fraser, announced last night that arrangements had been completed for the first meeting of the South Pacific Commission to commence in Sydney on May 11. He said that since the agreement establishing the commission was signed in January 1947, a great deal of preliminary work had been done in preparation for the establishment of the commission. Up to the present time the agreement had been ratified by four out of the six Governments which signed it, and there was every reason to believe that the two outstanding ratifications will be forthcoming very shortly. All member Governments had concurred in the proposal made by Australian and New Zealand Governments that the commission should meet forthwith in order to proceed with the selection of a site for the headquarters of the commission, the appointment of the principal officers, including the secretary general, and other questions of organisation. New Zealand Delegates The New Zealand commissioners at the first meeting in Sydney will be Mr, C. C. R. McKay and Brigadier F. Hunt. Mr. McKay was for many years secretary of native affairs in the administration of Western Samoa and subsequently secretary of the Department of Island Territories. , . . . Brigadier Hunt had long administrative experience as well as experience in Pacific Islands and this will be of special value in dealing with organisational problems which confront the first meeting of the commission. The appointment of permanent commissioners will be considered by the Government following the conclusion of the first meeting “This development,” concluded the Prime Minister, will have the effect of setting the activities of the commission in motion and enabling it, after having disposed of administrative questions, to proceed without delay to its main task of advising member Governments regarding the measures which will contribute to the economic, social and educational advancement of the inhabitants of their respective territories in the South Pacific."