INDUSTRIES WEEK.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 77, 7 May 1914, Page 14

INDUSTRIES WEEK.

DISPLAYS OF NEW ZEALAND ; MANUFACTURES. £•< One of the most original displays of all is that, made, by the Oak Hall fur- : aiiture establishment in Worcester Street. ' The aim of the manager of • - Oak fiall (Mr P. Gill) is to provide .* originality of design, combined with r solidity and attention to detail. All articles are made of solid. Canadian oak, i: and even tfhe backs of the wardrobes are made of solid wood. Three-ply is i u used nowhere except.in the bottoms of !s•drawers, which are fitted with double runners, a form of construction not often adopted in New Zealand. Mr Gill is an expert designer, with long ex- ,• -"perience in many of the best furniture - -establishments in the Old Country. He can supply designs for a complete of furniture, either replicas or c entirely original. No design is made up uiWre than three times, the firm's aim ' being to allow its customers to have ■'-original homes. No matter how popuC lar it might be, no design is allowed to ' become common. The result is that , tl> e oak Hall. products are real things -of beauty. Oak Hall has been estabi lished -for three years, and its wares not. being of the kind to which New 'Zealamlers had been accustomed, it naturally took some time to put. the business on a firm basis. "It was an uphill fight for a time," Mr Gill informed a representative, "but we are now firmly established, and have a . large clientele, both in the city antl The best move we ever made "was to .advertise in THE SUN. ' 'The business '(THE SUN advertisements have brought ;tis is wonderful. We see it especially on Mondays, our country • customers' day. Last Monday we placed three large orders with country '. people, who came into the shop and > -said they had read oUr advertisement in 'THE SUN. It is surprising to us to /see the small out-of-the-way places - which the paper reaches." Those who •enjoy seeing beautiful and artistic • particles should nofe■•miss paying a visit

to Oak Hall. There can be iittle doubt that the disv "plays of New Zealand manufactures ' made by the leading shops in Christ'Chureh will stimulate people to take a pride in the industrial development of the country and inspire them to further that development by purchasing local ■ Inducts rather than the surplus goods of American and European manufacv turers employing cheap labour and pro- . ducing goods not a bit better in quality or any cheaper than those made in •this country. f : - Who could fail to realise the worth •of New Zealand blankets on seeing the large window full of these comfortable warm fleeces displayed by Ballantyne •and Co? This firm also shows excellent lines of children's clothing, boys' suits, such articles, made in New Zealand of New Zealand cloth. There are the splendid rugs from the looms • of Kaiapoi, Mosgiel, and Petone, "which compare to the disfavour of similar foreign products. There is an exceptionally good display of tweeds and other fabrics from Do- . minion mills, heavy well-woven materi; ials made of pure wool, as smart as , anything imported, and without *any suspicion of shoddy in their build. There are leather goods of all kinds, travelling bags and brief bags, boots and shoes of all styles, and of uniform excellence in quality, all produced in New Zealand and largely in Canterbury.

IBallantyne and Co. exhibit all these things to inspire the imagination of the Country's possible prosperity if only

people bought more largely of the products of their Country, and so enabled the manufacturer to give employment to greater numbers. It should be hardly possible for people to buy imported ■woven and knitted underwear after .having seen Ballantyne's display of these -articles made in this country. Messrs Ash by, Bergh and Co. 's display is mostly of brushes, paint brushes, and other brushes in all stages of manufacture, from the raw bunch of hogs-hair I* the finished article ready to the hand of the painter and decoratoiv, It is jiot a large display, but it is nevertheless as worth while as any of the others; the brushes are manufactured , by a Christchureh firm, and their exhibition enforces, as much as any larger d,Vplay, the point, that it pays best to buy local manufactures because local manufacturers employ local tradesmen.

A. J. WHITE AND CO

A. J. White and Co., perhaps the oldest furniture business in Christ- ; church, has taken Industries Week very | seriously and has devoted three windows to the showing of what may be done. The first window displays the ' rugs for which New Zealand is famous : —the work of Kaiapoi, Koslyu, and 1 jMosgiel. In.many 'patterns, and in jt-various weights, they appear to be all i j that the traveller could require in woven wool to give him warmth. The second window displays furniture for a : living room —the sort of room in which /.a man might live comfortably, with wide settees and deep arm chairs, each ■ "comfy" with tlie result of skilled upholstering. The oak furniture i; (though it may be built of foreign wooit) is in its final state the finished work of colonial workmen. For example the frames of the fine hall clocks were each of them made in Christchurch. The window that holds blankets is a ■ lesson that the local manufacturers are alive to local needs. The special fea- >>" *tnrc of the display is a steeping bag made by the Kaiapoi Woollen Factory, covered without with waterproof and lined within with wool so warmly that,

as the sign says, all fear of pneumonia mav be avoided. -

' Within the shop there are great displays of colonial work—the big armchair Which was designed for comfort, the wide settee which invites rest, the "club" chair that means satisfaction for each who sits in it. There are rocking chairs, too. 'ln fact all that makes for happiness in a home. A. J. White and Co. have looked to utility aiid the craft that is the art of comfort. The newer ideas have not been neglected for the showrooms —they are well lighted, and made suitably low in the roof, so that furniture may not be dwarfed —show locally-made examples of what is called the "mission" style of work. These are simple things, made in accordance with the earliest American designs, and are about the most suitable goods for the modern bungalow. The present taste is for oak, with a few asking for walnut; but the wood chosen at A. J. White's means simply that the men of Christchurch will work out the design selected in that medium. One wood or another, it is all the same to them, and they can be successful in each —and always they will make the sort of furniture with which one can live.