DEVASTATED BRADFORD.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 220, 14 September 1923, Page 7

DEVASTATED BRADFORD.

INTERNATIONAL POSITION. COMPETITION OF FRANCE. (By MEKCATOK.) The captains of industry in Bradford, by far the greatest wool manufacturing city in the world, have aptly seized .Mr. | Lloyd George's descriptive metaphor, in I order to draw attention to the clear evi-j deuce of the devastation of trade- in iheir j city, only a f'-w year- ago regarded a-I the richest and most prosperous city j in lingliind. "Sei r long i|iieues of unemployed."' they say lo the wool manufacturers of Boubaix, worse than the physical devastation of thai city, and far more depressing. Numerous . towns in North.-in France have been restored and partly restored by Itritish I philanthropy. and France ha- now. returned the romplimenl by invading Britain with cheap manufacture-, under- i selling liradford—therefore largely! responsible for tie- di.-tre-sing urn in-j phivment that i- hanging like a black j cloud over l'.riti-h industry. There is j little wonder that British exports during August increased by only a paltry | £7(1.0(1(1 over the same month of last | year. even this inc-rea-e bringing the! total value to a level which exceeds that j of only two months out of tin- eight that I leave been recorded this year, for neutral j countries can buy on more favourable I I terms from Koubai.v. than from Brad] I ford, en account of the depreciated; j exchange, ami even London i- buying | heavily from Sort hern France, instead j lof from Yorkshire. | Mr. Noel Elnkslie, ihe I'.rit.-'i Trade i ("tiimui-sioner. ileull very feelingly wilh j ithis a-pec-t of trade, in his addri-ss to | 'the Auckland Chamber of Commerce last I !week. when he appealed to importers 101 remember that trade in Britain is at pre- j sent very bail indeed, and lien there I arc- -till a million and n-quarter uncm-j i,loved, representing probably live mil-1 I lion men. women and chil.lren. who :.ie ! at present living on the public- funds, j Ml i- difficult to see, however, how Lis j appeal can have any practical rc.-ult-. already giving Britain all the trad.- tlu-v I ! p.,s=,ibiy .-an. and i. really ]~..k- ..- if lain material change in tin- \ncidence j must come on tin- initiative of the, i'.rilish manufacturer- themselves. V. c have de.tie all we can lie expected to do j as a lecval British community. I olleetively we have eon-istently framed and enlarged the scope of a' i preferential tariff, for tlie express pur-, i pose o: making it advantageous for I importers to buy in Britain. Individu-1 j ally it can lie claimed that our importers, j 'a- well a- the buying public, have put urn shilling into British trade that it; I was reasonably po-sihle to do. and only I | regret i lie limitation placed upon their* | purchases by condition- thai are prneti- , .ally beyond their centre.l. There i- no more- loyal Englishman in Auckland than , jibe president o; the Chamber of < .cmmerce, and yel when he wants an engine ; for hi- launch he almost iias to teach; i the British manufacturer how to make lit. or else take the line of least resist-! , anep. as so many woui.l be forced to do. and buy from one ol those countries whose manufacturers have taken tie trouble to ascertain the rec|uiremcnts : marine engine i- expected not to ;\v ith.nil the con-tant cure of an expert during every 'ay of the year. I 'lie, I heavy importation- of foreign machinery j are not due to the disloyalty o: hovers! in New Zealand, but to tiie superior | attention from those countries whose ! the rec|uirements of the trade There' i- no more loy.il firm ill Auckland than I ; !•• 'inn of which ihe self-same pre-idont is managing director, and yet they dare not instruct their buyer- lo confine their j j purchases to British "cods, for they | might ju-t a- well go out of business j a- try under those conditions to success- j fully compete with those of their neigh-i .hours who are importing manufactures and products from all part- of the world. . Motor cars arc Usually quoted as the j stock- example of the enormous disparity I between importation" of British and I foreign made, not in any way due to any disloyalty to the former, hut to tlie superior attention of the latter to the | peculiar requirements of New Zealand.! ! What i- true of the largest manufacture i imported i- equally true of the smallest. From our vcy\ infancy those of n- who ■ are British-horn are proud of our "nation of vhopkocpers." and we re.-all I the iiur-ery rhyme nbon! "ihe but.-her.j land baker, and cnndleslie-k maker." It' is largeli a myth. j [ We ought to he ashamed of the candle-stick-maker-, not proud of them, for 'there i- not one of them that has even 'taken the trouble to find out that in I ! New Zealand about 00 per cent of the ! [candles arc of a standard si/.e. requiring j |a standard size of socket. In any shop \ !in Auckland the full range of quality i i will be found, from silver down to the ] humble enamel, made in .lapan. Sweden, j j France. Germany. America and England, j hut they arc all alike in one respect: Ithe candles will not fit them. Wo can ! i forgive the foreigner, as he probably j 'knows no lie!ter. but we cannot forgive I lour own kith and kin. for the most l casual inquiry would have found that I 'all cur candles are of the same size. | i (in the rare occasions on which an odd j jllriti-h candlestick i- found to tit our] candle- a loyal buyer i- horrified to note that ihe vcrv same make will vary: ihe stand.- arc alike, the handles are alike, the decoration.- arc alike; but | the mi.-i important part, the socket, is |in bewildering variety. An odd one will tit. hut in.i-i of them will be too small. (necessitating fhe candle being cut down, jor el-e to" large in weibhlo about unless supported hv the homely device of packling with paper. i Candle-tick- arc probably the smallest ! commodity imported into New Zealand, land vet then- suggest n fertile field of I inquiry on the pact of the British Trade : ( ommi-.-ioiier. for lie would probably find, ill tbi- as in a host of other com- • moditie-. that if the British manulac- ,,„-,.,- would only take the trouble to {acquaint binixdi with the requirementof New /-aland, and similarly ~f all !the other market- for which he i attempting lo cater, in i-ompetitioti with i foreign manufacturers and traders who arc leaving no stone unturned to get a lar»er share of what was almost a Briti-|, monopoU during la.-t century. he would gain far more iv tangible re.-ult-than b\ appealing lo an audience who arc a I read \ in full sympathy with the ~hje<i of hi- roque-t! and are alrea.ly Idoing their U'-l, in the face of disapI pointing and almost heanbrenking obstacle-, t" improve the condition- in I "Devastated Bradford." and all the other j unfortunate devastated manufacturing eitie- in the Mother Country.