DOMINION GOODS.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20215, 18 April 1931, Page 16

DOMINION GOODS.

;i*rapEGfjoN of products DISPLAY FOB SCHOOLBOYS. About 100 schoolboys, drawn from ' the Christchurch Boys ' High School and • the Christchurch Technical College, were the guests of "The Farmers" at afternoon tea yesterday, when the general . manager, of the New: Zealand Farmers'' ■ Co-operative Association, Mr W. Ma-: chin, gave a talk on the objects of the "New Zealand-made Shopping-Week."; During, the 'afternoon of the •staff conducted the boys round thfe premises and explained to them the details of a large number of working models.

Mr Machin expressed pleasure at the; opportunity to speak to the lads on ; NewZealand manufactures. The: special , week was being .held, he said, to remiid; everybody of the necessity for helping • each- other by buying goods made by. New Zealanders. 4 'ln a few years," ■he said/ "you will >be the people who; will be spending the money. Quite a lot of people in New Zealand do not take the trouble to think when making . their purchases.. They are thoughtless and careless of the origin of the goods ■ t J ie y buy and are sometimes prejudiced. Very often goods are boughtfrom people in whom we have little interest, and who buy very little from us." . It had been decided, said Mr Machin, to use New Zealand wool instead of kapoc in mattresses and cushions, in order, for on© thing, to give employ- ■ ment to people in New Zealand, iand for another reasoir that it was a far better article for the purpose. He had found, when looking up some figures, that from 60,000 to 80,0001b pf kapoc were bought by New Zealand from the Dutch East Indies every. year. Again, New Zealand T)6ught £2,000,000 worth of general goods from the Dutch East Indies yearly, and the reciprocation was about £Booo—mostly in butter. "We should buy a little less from them unless they can see their way to buy a little more from us;." said Mr Machin. The quandary Came, said the speaker,' the purchaser found that an imported article was cheaper than the local production. But to take the low- ' er-pnced goods was a short-sighted policy-- "Think, for ft, lpoment," he said, i 4 of the position of any relatives of yours in factories -s and manufacturing concerns. By refusing to buy New Zea-land-made goods you might be putting them out of a job or causing them to do short-time work. Think of . the- seri- . onsness of unemployment. There is no successful way-of curing unemployment < .except by the fleifelofcrnent 'of otdiaary business.All things like doles and the, pickingup of a few bits of grass here t aad there are of no, use. If I gave 6t you ajsoveVeign— and I would to be able to "do would be . keenly interested- to se«i your method '.f „ expenditure. Bzobably' the - first man Vwould setia notion agreatarmy, earn- . tog an infinitesimal portion of- his £l. .., without thinking about it; ThV «rst v prejudice should be in favour of New' Zealand, and the second in favour of people of * our own blood—the people of . the Empire." ... New Zealand bought £8,000,000 worth ojf goods per year from, America and - .America replied with a purchase of £4,000,000 worth of goods from the Do-,-jninioii, said Afr Machin, again'remind",ing Ms hearers to give the fullest eon* alteration. to their expenditure. Mr.G. M. -Keys (Technical College) : returned, thanks Lib tlie directorate of -'the Xfermers'"Co-ope:rat|v<* Association ,for the' opportunitjf of seeing -various processes of and the dia-' < jjjlay",of-NwZealarid-iiiad6 goods, Boys J»rawnt %So v ihonld Tntfrmally be' at wwk, he 'skid. ,The trouble was jic> :Work" i« them.,So> , « .would L (siesident of the Cant«r- ---' , W»y t ' Manufacturers' "Association)" ex. ■ manner in wnlrh Domin's- jreM)' l being ? dlspiayed by the Assorfation;. J"-. v -r r * t