VALUABLE PUBLICITY.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 45, 22 February 1929, Page 10

VALUABLE PUBLICITY.

ADVERTISING NEW ZEALAND. FILMS, EXHIBITIONS AND PRESS. M. JORDAX, M.P.'s IMPRESSIONS.

When Mr. W. J. Jordan, the member for Manukau, was in England he was keenly interested in liie efforts that are being made there to foster trade between Xew Zealand and the Old Country. "I had the chance of seeing something of the publicity work that is carried out 011 behalf of Xew Zealand, under the direction of the High Commissioner, Sir dailies Parr," he says. "The publicity officer, Mr. Drew, a well-known Xew Zealand journalist, is in charge of the work. He was appointed by the Public Service Commissioner a few years ago as New Zealand's first publicity officer, and after setting up the machinery for the Government's publicity otliee in Wellington, and spending two years in organising work (in which for a brief time he had thi. assistance of the present publicity officer in Wellington), he was placed by the late Mr. Massey in charge of the work in London. Air. Drew is fully alive to all the opportunities that exist for pushing the Dominion's interests, and neglects none of tlieni. I found that New Zealand, notwithstanding the small sum of only £3000 which she allocates to the High Commissioner for publicity work in England, is well to the fore among the other Dominions in ail departments of publicity and propaganda, in spite of the large sums they have at their disposal. The High Commissioner himself, by throwing the weight of his representative office into various enterprises, does much to accomplish this end.

"I doubt if many people realise the work that is accomplished by t lie Dominion's publicity organisation in London. Wo hear from time to time of exhibitions of New Zealand's produce in Great Britain. There is co-operation among all the New Zealand produce boards in this work, as there is in other forms of publicity, but to secure coordinated 'New Zealand' exhibits, as apart from separate displays by the boards, it is necessary that the Dominion should be represented on all occasions as a national entity, and her produce shown grouped. In a number of the exhibitions the Empire Marketing Board provides the space free, but the designing of the stands, and the lay-out of the exhibits, together with the management of the exhibits during the exhibition period, is all work for which the publicity section of the New Zealand office is responsible

"Another commendable enterprise is the showing of films in the cinema theatres of Great Britain. It has not been possible, I was informed, to get the film into the principal London cinemas with any degree of regularity, though now and then it is accomplished; but in the provinces the average number of our films shown daily is 15, and under the system that has been built up the cost to the Government of this enterprise is less than £350 a year. The films are chiefly New Zealand scenics, but our various primary industries receive a very good hearing and are growing in popularity. As far as I could learn no other Dominion has this enterprise organised to anything like the same extent.

"Press publicity seems to be very effectively carried out. Special articles on the Dominion frequently appear, especially in the trade papers and magazines. I was shown proof that the daily average of newspaper clippings in which Xew Zealand receives mention in some form or other in the Press of Great Britain is well over 100. Photographs sent to magazines and papers last year numbered over 2000. A great deal of activity is carried out in respect to the schools. Last year 8400 booklets were posted direct to the home address of juvenile applicants for them, and numbers of others were sent to schools for lesson uses. Some thousands of enlarged photographs were distributed for the walls of schools. This does not by any means exhaust the list of activities that are carried on. There are, for instance, the magnificent window displays in the Strand office, the tourist propaganda that is put out, and the placing of cinema films on certain passenger j steamers on the Atlantic and Eastern runs."