MANCHESTER PRODUCTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 81, 7 April 1931, Page 4

MANCHESTER PRODUCTS.

DIRECT SHIPMENT FROM N.Z,

APPEAL TO RETAILERS.

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

LONDON, February 24.

The Manchester Ship Canal Company as far back as Wembley year, took an interest in decentralising the market for Empire products. I remember, writes our correspondent, a talk with one of .the enthusiasts who founded the Canal Company, the late Sir Drummond Fraser, in 1924, when he was doing all he could to persuade the Dominions that there were facilities of cold storage and for marketing second to none in the kingdom in Manchester, the centre of a dense population.. At the annual meeting yesterday Mr. Alfred Watkin, who presided, made an interesting allusion to the efforts that are now being made by the Empire Marketing Board and other trade organisations to develop the consumption of Empire products. It had always struck him as remarkable, he said, that with the teeming population of Lancashire and Yorkshire there had not been a greater import to the North of England ports of New Zealand and Australian products. A determined effort was now being made by the New Zealand Government and the New ZeaV , 'l Dairy Produce Board to develop t'n North of England markets, and a steamer! was about to leave New Zealand for Manchester with large consignments of butter and cheese. He hoped that the distributors and buyers in the dieti-ict would support the sale of those products on arrival, and thereby encourage further shipments. As to the export trade of this country, Mr. Watkin saw no hope of any permanent improvement until the cost of production in all the basic industries was reduced by at least 15 per cent.