EMPIRE EXHIBITION.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 173, 24 July 1922, Page 7

EMPIRE EXHIBITION.

INVITATION TO NEW ZEALAND.

TO SHOW WHAT SHE CAN DO

An Empire Exhibition that is to be held in England in 1024 will give NewZealand -'the chance of a lifetime to show what she can produce. Once we do realise that fact there should be no doubt about the extent of our exhibit, but we need a little stirring up, and for this purpose Major Belcher and Lieut.Colonel Christie, of the Exhibition Mission, have come out to explain matters. They and the secretary of the mission I Mr. Bates) were welcomed civically at the Town Hall this morning bv'the Mayo,- (Mr. J. H. Gunson), in the presence of a mnn'ber of business men.

The Mayor pointed out what an important event the exhibition would be to New Zealand, and ]><■ strongly urged that the Dominion should be worthily represented there. Referring to the two schools of thought in Xew Zealand, one holding that she must depend on her primary industries and the other championing the secondary industries, Mr. Gunson said he was sure the country could build up its secondary industries to a very great degree. A country could not depend entirely on its primary industries. Xew Zealand should take every opportunity of linking up her interests within the Empire. Mr. CfUnson mentioned that he looked forward to the time, within one or two decades, when Xew Zealand's exports would represent £100,000.00'). If our other industries developed correspondingly, then the prospects of New Zealand would be very bright indeed.

Major Belcher spoke of the.growing feeling at Home in the direction of realising that in the Dominions there was a field that required much more attention than had been given it in the past—he meant commercially and financially. He had heard Xew Zealand spoken of as being small, 'but it was, he reminded his hearers, one-sixth larger than Great Britain. All it wanted was population. It had tremendous possibilities. More Empire migrants—he objected to the words immigrant and emigrant—would mean more production, and more production would mean that more markets would be needed. The forthcoming exhibition was the first scientific attempt to take stock of the Empire's productions and its markets, and Xew Zealand should he fittingly re-presented. The Major said he had been struck with the possibilities of New Zealand's secondary industries. Xew Zealand had hardly scratched its development of electric power. With cheap power and the raw material on hand it only required capital to make Xew Zealand in the future as great in regard to her secondary industries as she was in regard to her primary industries. The more the secondary industries developed, the more the primary industries would develop, and Xew Zealand migiit easily support a population ten, twenty, or thirty times the present population. Lieutenant-Colonel Christie mentioned fcha.t Xew Zealand had not the slightest difficulty in raising money at Home on gilt-edged securities, and when the Empire Exhibition was held it was "up to Xew Zealand'" to show that her industries equally merited the confidence o f the financiers. The Hon. George Fowlds, president of the Chamber of Commerce, added 'a ■word of welcome, after which a number of those present met the meinbeTs of the delegation.