Polynesian Records Sold Overseas

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31318, 14 March 1967, Page 20

Polynesian Records Sold Overseas

New Zealand is the world’s leading manufacturer of Polynesian records. New Zealand recordings are adapted for French listeners and are made under licence in Japan. Viking Records, Ltd., of Wellington, has 300 recordings in its Polynesian music catalogue. As well, there are dozens of titles in the popular music catalogue, and a third of its output is exported. New Zealand’s Polynesian affiliations prompted the company to make a recording of the guitarist Peter Posa. This was a success in New Zealand and was exported to Fiji. The record sold so well there that the company saw a gap in recorded music that it could fill. Export business then began in earnest, Eight years after the first export order to Fiji, the company’s records are going everywhere in the Pacific from Honolulu to New Guinea and to Europe, Japan and North America, says “Export News,” a Department of Industries and Commerce publication.

The bulk of the company’s export business is in recordings of Polynesian-type music. This includes Maori songs. There is a great demand overseas for Polynesian rhythms which often have associations with a tropical holiday experienced, or to come. Many buyers of the records are tourists. Some numbers such as the Tahitian “Tamoure” have made real "hits." Others like “Maori Love Songs” and

“Holiday in Hawaii” provide interesting background music. Recording teams are taken on location to produce such specialised themes as “Songs and Dances of the Cook Islands” and live recordings have been made at the Mocambo Hotel, Fiji, and records produced expressly for sale in the hotel's shop. There is also a special Dateline Hotel souvenir record. Where it has not been possible to export directly from New Zealand, the company has made arrangements for manufacture overseas under licence. For instance, the same Tahitian recordings pressed in New Zealand for home markets and the Pacific, may be manufactured in France for certain European markets. In Australia, the records are made under licence with the covers manufactured in New Zealand. Manufacturers in France, Australia, Belgium, Japan, Mexico, Britain, Denmark and Holland all are paying substantial royalties to the New Zealand company. DECIMAL CONVERSION* Decimal currency will be Introduced in New Zealand in July, 1967. Recommended conversion rates from Ss to <1 are as follows:

68 50c 13s 61.30 68 60c 14s 81.40 78 70c 15s 81.50 8s 80c 16s 81.60 98 90c 17s 81.70 10s 61 18s 81.80 113 61.10 19s 81.90 12S 61.20 20s 82