TRADE REPRESENTATIVE

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 840, 7 December 1929, Page 7

TRADE REPRESENTATIVE

CANADIAN COMMISSIONER ; APPOINTED MR. J. W. COLLINS CHOSEN From Our Resident Reporter WELLINGTON, Friday. New' Zealand w'ill now have an • official trade representative in Canada. Today the Hon. J. G. Cobbe. Minister of Industries and Commerce, announced the appointment of Mr. J. W. Collins, secretary of the Industries and Commerce Department. The appointement has been made in virtue of a clause in the Finance j Act, which provides that the Governor- j General may from time to time ap- j point a person to be commissioner for j New r Zealand in Canada and the United | States of America, who shall hold ! office during the pleasure of the Governor-General. Born in Wellington and a son of Mr. Andrew Collins, a well-known Wellington citizen, Mr. Collins has served j practically all his life in the Civil Ser-

vice. For 22 years he was with the ! Department of Labour, in which he rose to second position. In 1916 he was appointed secretary to the Board i of Trade, and on the abolition of that board in 1922 he was appointed Secre- j tary of the Department of Industries : and Commerce, in which position he ! has had very wide experience in all i commercial and economic problems. WIDENING OF MARKET Mr. Collins has given particular attention to the widening of New Zea-; land's markets overseas. He is well and favourably known to all commer- 1 cial men and to manufacturers throughout New Zealand, his relations with the latter extending over the whole of his 36 years’ service with the ! Government. Mr. Collins has acted ; as chairman of several important economic commissions instituted by j the Government in recent years. | In making the announcement of Mr. J

Collins’s appointment. Mr. Cobbe said the Government felt that considerable expansion of trade should be effected by the appointment of a tfade commissioner in Canada, who was capable of giving reliable trade information to importers. In particular, many New Zealand commodities not vet marketed there, which would receive favourable treatment under the Canadian tariff, could be readily sold. In agricultural seeds, casein, vegetables, fruit, hemp and tallow Canada at present did a comparatively negligible trade with New Zealand and it would be the commissioner s duty to bring under the notice of importers in Canada the favourable position that New Zealand occupied to supply these goods. Mr. Cobbe said Mr. Collins would not be leaving for Canada until the late autumn of 1930. His office would be located either in Montreal or Toronto, the location being left to the discretion of the commissioner.