EXHIBITION AND AFTER.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 37, 13 February 1926, Page 14

EXHIBITION AND AFTER.

PROPAGANDA SHOULD CONTINUE. AN ATJCKLANDER-5 OPINION. FURTHERING EMPIRE INTERESTS. "After the Exhibition, what?" One purpose of the Exhibition, which 5s nor,- being held at Dunedin, has been industrial and commercial advantage. "When it concludes in April, what is to be done to continue the advertising and propaganda which is now going on? That is the question that has exercised the minds of many business men and others ill the past two months. Speaking of the question to-day. Mr. AY. J. Keves, secretary of the International Forestry Delegation, said that, in Ids visit to' Dunedin. he had tentatively discussed it with Mr. J. W. Collins, secretary of the Chamber of Commerce and Industries and Xew Zealand Commissioner at the Exhibition, and also with Mr. C. M. Croft, the Canadian Commissioner, and Mr. \\. Smallhorn, Commonwealth Commissioner. "What is going to be done after the Exhibition?" he asked today. From his conversations with many business men, he remarked that there was a sympathetic feeling towards the formation of a representative and enthusiastic organisation which would raise the slogan, "Trade within the Empire" from a mere popular phrase to a moving power for Empire good. "Just, how this will be accomplished is uncertain," Mr. Keyes observed, "but at the present period, all sections of the business community in both islands recognise the need of co-ordinating effort for a commercial drive to further Empire interests." It seemed evident to him that leading men, supported by a Government which had the confidence of influential opinion behind, it. would produce a scheme, after the Exhibition had terminated, to carry on the work, not only of propaganda, but also of assisting our primary and secondary industries along the lines initiated at the Exhibition. Support For Rome Industries. Home industries, and the need of supporting them, were the subjects of a special scheme recently in New South "Wales. Business men there had organised a great advertising campaign called the great "white train," which travelled all over the country, with expert sale, men aboard, who explained to the people of every town and village the value of home industries and the necessity of buying the goods of .their own country. The scheme had met with much sue cess. "I ana not suggesting that any temporary complication be introduced into our railway system." remarked Mr. Keyes, "but the results of the initiative shown across the Tasman must be very gratifying to the southern Welshmen, and the scheme is a useful object lesson to ourselves." For some months the attention of the New Zealand Government had been attracted to this experiment of a travelling exhibition; and it bad been recognised that an exhibition train could be organised much more quickly if the scheme were put into operation on the eve of a national exhibition. Dunedin to-day represented every phase of the primary industries and manufactures of the Dominion. At the Exhibition there was a display of historical importance from leading workshops in Great Britain: and in the Canadian section were evidences of the industrial power and opulence of our greater sister-Dominion. Australia, the Commonwealth near at hand, had a range of exhibits with which many Aucklanders and others had a passing acquaintance in brief visits to Sydney or Melbourne. But the great purpose of the Exhibition was to bring home to the people the scope and nature of the Xew Zealand Government's activities in the industrial sphere, and the surprising variety of the work of the provinces. Ourselves and the Empire. It was well, continued Mr. Keyes. that we should see what other parts of tne Empire were doing. The Exhibit placed the industrial world before us in a way that must bring the greattst national benefit—Xew Zealand first; other Dominions and the Homeland next; and foreign countries outside. It was a lesson to us to stand behind the Empire in the cause of Empire trade: and showed how far we could annex the local market for our own factories, and when it would be wiser and better for us to admit the products of firms in England, Canada, or Australia, than to" attempt to exclude them and cause expense and trouble to ourselves. If the Exhibition showed us what we could make best for ourselves, and make in quantities to satisfy all our requirements, it also showed us what other countries in the world could make for us, and showed them (through their representatives) what we could make for them. We could turn such knowledge to valuable account, not only in considering any changes in our tariff regulations, but also in exploiting new markets.