N. Zealand Treated As Sister State

Northern Advocate, 18 March 1948, Page 6

N. Zealand Treated As Sister State

WELLINGTON, Thu. (P.A.). “Throughout Australia it was realised that for strategic purposes New Zealand and the Commonwealth are one nation and that during the recent war New Zealand constituted one of the front-line trenches of Australian defence.”

This was stated in an interview by Mr W. Taylor, New Zealand, Senior Trade Commissioner to Australia, who is visiting New Zealand.

Mr Taylor said New Zealand was treated as a sister state during the war where raw materials were concerned. and one-fifth of all local production in Australia was sent across the Tasman to meet the Dominion’s essential needs. He added that in all his relations In the Commonwealth in both Governmental and Commercial circles, he had found the greatest desire to help and cooperate with New Zealand. SUBJECT TO LABOUR The establishment of Australia’s manufacturing industries had reached a point where the Commonwealth was in a position, subject to the availability of labour, to cater for New Zealand’s requirements on a very much wider scale than before the war. Just how much advantage New Zealand could take of this position was a matter for discussion between the Australian, New Zealand and United Kingdom Governments, he said. Invited to comment on recent reports of complaints of inferior quality of certain Australian goods, Mr Taylor said his impression of Australian productions was that practically all lines of secondary industry had shown great improvement on pre-war production in terms of working quality and selling appearance. This was particularly true of precision work.