ARRANGEMENTS COMPLETED FOR MEETING OF SOUTH PACIFIC COMMISSION

Wanganui Chronicle, 4 May 1948, Page 6

ARRANGEMENTS COMPLETED FOR MEETING OF SOUTH PACIFIC COMMISSION

(P.A.) Wellington, April 29. The Prime Minister (Mr. Fraser) announced tonight 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 hao 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 the two outstanding ratifications will be forthcoming very shortly.

While the agreement cannot come into full operation until these are received, all members and governments had concurred in a proposal made by the 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, and the appointment of principal officers, including a secretary-general, and other questions of organisation. The New Zealand commissioners at the first meeting in Sydney will be Mr. C. C. R. McKay, and Brigadier F. L. 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 the 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 the administrative question, to proceed without delay to its main task of advising members and governments regarding measures which will contribute to the economic, social, and educational advancement of the inhabitants of their respective territories in the South Pacific.”