161 9A6P8V ISIT TO NEW ZEALAND
ARRIVAL STATEMENTS BY NEW ZEALAND PRIME
MINISTER, MR. HOILYOAKE9 AND PRIME MINISTER
JOHN GORTON OF AUSTRALIA AT WELLINGTON AIRPORT
27 MARCH 1968
MR. HOLYCAKE: I want to say how delighted I am that Mr. Gorton
has come to visit us and has also brought his wife with him.
You all remember, and I do particularly, John,
that it is just a little over a year ago that we had Harold
Holt here. N,; wee re very fond of him, and I know we will be
of you as well. This is a wonderful gesture that you have
come over here so soon on your first overseas visit, to this
your sister dominion.
I do not know what new I can say because the press
have been asking me, and asking you the other side of the
Tasman, but we will of course, gentlemen, be discussing
everything that I can imagine of mutual interest to our two
countries. Don't ask me what the agenda is. We have no
formal agenda. It would be much easier to enumerate the
things we might not talk about, because we will have a lot
of opportunity in the coming two or three days we are
travelling together, but our talks are bound to cover trade,
defence, our common interests in the Commonwealth, the United
Nations, and all the subjects that are of current world
interest at the present time.
John, a very warm welcome, and I hope you enjoy
these three days with us.
MR. GORTON: Thank you very much, Mr. Prime Minister. For my own
part, it is a delight for me to be able to be in New Zealand
so soon after becoming the Prime Minister of Australia.
One of the first things I did when I became Prime
Minister was to ring up the Prime Minister of New Zealand to
let him know that this had happiened, because we had known
each other before and because of the particular closeness
that our two C. ountries have, and this very kind invitation
of yours to follow that up is something which I appreciate
and which I think the people of Australia appreciate.
We will be talking about a whole variety of matters,
but these will I think perhaps better be dealt with at the
formal press conference that is going to be heald tomorrow, and
questions can be asked about particular matters. But quite
apart from any specific things that wie may discuss, there is
over and above that, I think, the advantage of the general
meeting for myself the particular advantage of meeting
yourself and your Ministers who were so kind to come out to
the aerodrome today. a -/ 2
2.
You spoke of an overseas visit, and indeed it is
an overseas visit because we flew across a lot of sea to get
here, but really it was not as far in miles for me as it would
have been if I had gone to Perth in Western Australia, and it
was not as long in time as it would have been if I had gone
to Perth in Western Australia. So though overseas, this, I
think, emphasises the neighbourliness that we have, and I
thank you for the invitation, Sir, to come here.
I believe there will be benefit to both our nations,
and I think this will be the forerunner indeed, it is not
so much a forefunner as a continuation of a situation where
your Ministers visit us and our Ministers visit you so
frequently that it occasions no particular comment, and then
I think we will have reached an even closer stage than we
ha. ve at present. Thank you very much.
CANBERRA 28 March 1968