Trade Commissioner Bidden Farewell

Press, Volume C, Issue 29506, 6 May 1961, Page 9

Trade Commissioner Bidden Farewell

“There's no need to wish you good luck. You already have it. and you will keep it," said Mr D. M. Walker to a meeting of the council of the Canterbury Manufacturers’ Association which met him last evening to thank him for his services as Australian Trade Commissioner in the South Island for the last two years. Mr Walker was referring to the prospects of Canterbury as a manufacturing centre, and said that in his brief term in Christchurch he had seen manufacturing grow and the city grow both population and in the amenities offered. A trade commissioner did not have time to settle anywhere and form the usual friendships of a community. Mr Walker said, but in Christchurch he had found lasting friendship. When he arrived in the country his wife had been ill arid in need of hospital attention. A stranger and his wife had met him at the airport and said he need not worry about his small daughter—they would look after her whale her mother was in hospital. That stranger had turned out to be a permanent friend. He was Mr R. T. Alston, secre-

tary of the Manufacturers’ Association. Mr Walker said he would never forget that example of kindliness, which had been repeated many times during his term in the South Island. In his new posting, wherever he -went in Australia he would “put in a good word for Canterbury,” Mr Walker said. He had been pleased that in his time in the country a number of Australian industries had become established. When he expressed appreciation of Mr Walker’s services, the president of the association (Mr J. K. Dobson) also welcomed Mr Walker's successor, Mr S. D. Shubart. Mr Shubart has spent the last 14 years in Asian and African countries, his last posting being in Bangkok. One of his great interests has been hockey, and he was a player from 1914 to 1942. He recalled yesterday that in 1927 he had played for Victoria against a New Zealand team which was managed by the former Prime Minister. Sir Sidney Holland. Mr Dobson presented Mr Walker with a copy of "The Descriptive Atlas of New Zealand."