TASMANI AND NEW ZEALAND

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 4, 6 January 1939, Page 10

TASMANI AND NEW ZEALAND

COMMON INTERESTS MANY LINKS BETWEEN THE TWO COUNTRIES WELLINGTON, January 3. There were many links between Tasmania and New Zealand, and the two countries had many common interests, •said the Tasmanian Treasurer (the Hon. E. Dwyer-Gray) when he arrived at Wellington by the Awatea yesterday.

Mr Dwyer-Gray, who is the member i for Denniston in the Tasmanian House ot Assembly, Minister of Finance in ! the Tasmanian Cabinet, and Deputy I Premier of Tasmania, was accompan- j ied by the Hon. J. McDonald, a mem- I ber of the Tasmanian Legislative Assembly and an honorary Minister in the Cabinet, and Mr J. R. Quinn, Secretary to the Tasmanian Treasury. They intend to be in New Zealand during the greater part of January. Both of the Ministers have had a long association with the Tasmanian Labour movement, and Mr Dwyer-Gray I had Labour affiliations in Ireland be-; fore he went to Australia, his father 1 and grandfather having been Irish ! Members of Parliament, representing I the Home Rule Party. Mr Dwyer-Gray is a journalist and i was editor of the “Daily Post” and 1 “The World” when those Labour; papers were published in Tasmania, i He is still editor of “The Voice,” a: Saturday evening Labour paper which has been published in Hobart since ; 1925. He is a vice-president of the Australian Journalists’ Association. He has visited New Zealand on two previous occasions late in last century, but did not come south of Rotorua on • either occasion. Tasmanian Tercentenary Tasmanians considered they had much in common with New Zealand,! Mr Dwyer-Gray said, and they hoped to have many New Zealand visitors when they celebrated their tercenten-, ary in 1942. They were going to make . a big “noise” on that occasion. Not | the least link between the two countries was the form of government, and Tasmania was like New Zealand in I having returned a Government with an absolute majority from the elec- • tors, two out of every three Tasman-' ian electors having voted Labour in February, 1937. Tasmania differed from New Zea- j land in having proportional represen-; tation and an elective Legislative As-1 sembly. His constituency returned six members to the House of Assembly I and one to the Federal Assembly. The Tasmanian Government had experienced legislative difficulties because there were only two Labour members in the Upper House. Important mea-1 sures had been rejected by the Legis- j lative Assembly, and the Standing I

| Orders of the House of Assembly i would not permit of the same measure being introduced twice in the same session. This had led to the sudden end of one session so that another session could be opened a fortnight I later. The mdhsure that had caused ithe trouble was passed on the second ! occasion.