TO CAPTURE TRADE.

Press, Volume LI, Issue 15174, 12 January 1915, Page 8

TO CAPTURE TRADE.

A PROGRESSIVE MOTE,

BY THE INDUSTRIAL ASSOCIATION. A meeting of the Industrial Association was held last evening to consider suggestions for taking the fullest advantage- of the great industrial crisis precipitated by the war. The president (Mr J. B. Laurenson) occupied the chair, there being also present— Messrs 'J'. A. Frostick, A. Kaye, Drayton, Cogan, Black, Maddren, Yon Siernkovvski and Beet!

The chairman said that the executive had considered various matters of overcoming the apathy of the public in connexion with local goods. One of the best methods was clearly to educate the young people, and towards that end it was suggested that a pamphlet should ho prepared clearly setting out the causes of the war by means of extracts from the Imperial White Papers, the benefits that industries were to a country, the amount of German trade with the country, and how it could bo beneficially undertaken by manufacturers in the Dominion. This pamphlet when printed should be widely "distributed in the Dominion, and placed in the hands of school-children, where possible. A price had been secured to sho\v that 2000' pamphlets could be prepared and printed for £22 10s. This could be taken as a basis. Mr Herdman Smith, of the School of Art, had promised to design a, special cover for the booklet, and so mako it as attractive as possible. Ho thought, sdid/Air Laurenson, that if a special committee were appointed to act something tangible and beneficial could be done. The Wellington Association had promised to worK in with the idea if adopted. ■: Mr Frostick said tnat, while the scheme suggested was a good one, it might appear a little parochial. it also might be thought, that the suggestion to educate the children meant tliat the adults of the present generation were indifferent to the claims of the industrial part of the population. He did not think that was the case, but recollecting that meetings of the Association in the past were attended by a couple of hundred people* he thought something should be done to increase the enthusiasm of those connected witu industry. The Industrial Corporation of New Zealand should prepare a ocheme for the whole of New Zealand and delegate one portion of its scheme to Canterbury. They could not expect tho public to show enttiusiasm until the manufacturers took a and decisive etep and showed they were ready to supply the public. He thought that before any appeals were made to the public a meeting of the manufao-

turers of the Dominion should be held to decide whether they were capable and willing of supplying the requirements of the public at a reasonable price, and witmn a reasonable time. That assurance should come from tho industrial leaders before the campaign was started. The workers of the industries of the Dominion -were keen to take advantage of the present crisis, but without the assistance of the owners they could do nothing. The sending out of a few circulars was gooa enough, but it should De only part of a tag scheme, and not the scheme itself. To wait for the children would be to allow the opportunity to pass. Mr Laurensor. said that_the pamphlet would be for the whole lsorainion, and not merely for Canterbury, Mr Drayton said that during his twelve months' membership on the committee of the Association, he had been disappointed with the lack of interest taken in the Association. Either the employers were satisfied ■with the state of affairs or else they considered the Association had outlived its usefulness. He felt the scheme suggested was not the one that should be adopted. He believed they should get the different manufacturers together and discover what was the real trouble between them and the public. They should take the induslries by sections, and. discovering conditions, proceed to. wake them up, and with them the public. He felt that unless they really could do something they should just drop out. It appeared to him they had to become alive and really do some work.

At this stage the meeting went into committee, and after a frank discussion a special committee was appointed with power to add to its number, to devise and draw up a comprehensive scheme for interviewing manufacturers and discovering the best means for promoting local manufacture and impressing upon tho public the importance, in the interests of the country, of supporting locally-made goods.