AMERICAN CONSUL-GENERAL.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 109, 7 April 1934, Page 2

AMERICAN CONSUL-GENERAL.

MR CALVIN M. HITCH RETIRING IMPRESSIONS OF NEW ZEALAND Per Press Association. WELLINGTON, April 6. After a little over three years as Consul-General for the United States in New Zealand, Mb Calvin M. Hitch, accompanied by Mrs Hitch, left Wellington to-night for Auckland. They are sailing by the Mariposa to-morrow for Los Angeles. Mr Hitch will reach the retiring age of 65 in July next, and is returning to the States to have a liolidav before his actual retirement. Mr Hitch said that he and his wife had greatly enjoyed their stay in New Zealand. He had found the Government officials courteous and obliging, and the people had been very kind and hospitable. _ “I was surprised when I landed here to find that the country had made such wonderful development m the very short time since the- first settlers came to New Zealand,” said Mr Hitch “Your public roads are wonderful, and taking all things into consideration, the development lias been somewhat in advance of the population of the country. With your present development, New Zealand could easily accommodate double or three times the population you have, but these things of course, will come along in the ordinary course of affairs. «<I w as particularly interested to find New Zealand so well supplied with first-class newspapers. I think it remarkable that in a country of the size of New Zealand, and with the long distance you are from the other centres of population, your newspapers should be able to carry so much foreign news each day. Mr Hitch said he also had been particularly impressed with the agricultural and trade journals m the Dominion.