EMPIRE MARKETS

Dominion, Volume 25, Issue 94, 15 January 1932, Page 12

EMPIRE MARKETS

Lord Bledisloe Reviews Board’s Work FIVE YEARS’ RECORD Dominion Special Service. Auckland, January 14. Benefits and advantages which New Zealand enjoys through the work of the Empire Marketing Board were the subject of a comprehensive analysis by the Governor-General, Lord Bledisloe, in his opening address at an exhibition of the board’s posters this evening. His Excellency dealt in detail with the board’s work; and spoke of its campaign among the British public; the measure of that campaign in terms of benefit to New Zealand; the amelioration of products by means of research work; and of the position in which the board to-day finds itself. He hoped that New Zealand- people would be fully sympathetic toward its continued work. ‘‘The Empire Marketing Board was formed in London in 1926,” his Excellency said, “and was the outcome of a desire on the part of Great Britain, while asserting her unwillingness at the Imperial Conference of that year to abandon her traditional free trade policy, to provide some quid pro quo or compensation to Empire producers by giving thereafter a definite official impetus to the purchase of Empire produce by the British public. Its aims, briefly stated, are ‘to increase the quantity, and improve the quality, of Empire'products marketed in the United Kingdom and to make Empire buying a national habit.’ For these objects the British Government decided to render available a sum not exceeding £1,000,000 a year, and, on the advice of the Imperial Economic Committee, to establish this' new board to administer it. I was myself selected from the outset to sit on the board as the representative of the farmers of England and Wales. It may amuse you to learn that in that capacity my first demand from my overseas colleagues was that Britain be regarded as part of the British Empire—a proposition not previously contemplated—and that consequentially the benefit of the board’s grants be'shared by British farmers—a contention which was ultimately admitted and became the foundation of the slogan ‘Home produce first, then Empire, and lastly foreign.’ The Board’s Work. “The board’s funds have been devoted to scientific research, economic investigation, and publicity, and it is under this third heading that the postters now on exhibition in this building have been designed and distributed,” his Excellency said. “Grants for scientific research are intended to help in the increase of output of Empire produce,-the improvement of its quality, and the avoidance of its wastage. Grants for the furtherance of economic investigation have helped to keep producers, scattered over the Empire, in closer and more intimate contact with the needs and tastes of their wholesale and retail customers in the United Kingdom. Lastly, the board’s publicity activities have aimed at turning the thoughts of the public to the theme of Empire buying. Scientific research subsidised by the board is now in progress in the United Kingdom, in each of the Dominions, and in numerous colonies. Its range is very considerable.

“The board’s economic investigation includes such activities as the systematic survey of the wastage which occurs in imported Empire fruits and fish. Trade inquiries regarding competitive supplies of fruit and information on marketing requirements in the matter of its quality, grading and packing ha.ve also been undertaken. Retail market surveys have been carried out both nationally and in selected areas. Weekly intelligence notes are published by the board giving full marketing information for fresh fruit and klso for dairy produce. Statistical surveys are issued on the world position in respect/of various foodstuffs. •In the matter of publicity with a view to the sale in the United Kingdom of Empire produce the board • employs seven agencies, namely, newspaper advertisement, posters, leaflets and shop-window bills, exhibitions and shopping weeks, broadcasting, lectures and the cinema. Benefit to New Zealand.

“From the economic branch of the board’s activities,” his Excellency said, “New Zealand has gained definite advantage in a largely increased demand for her butter in the North of England as the result of an organised campaign commenced last January among the distributive traders in Manchester and other populous areas in Lancashire. Calls were made upon every single retailer in Manchester and the other large Lancashire towns. The augmented demand for New Zealand butter thus created has in fact compensated the Dominion for the loss of the valuable' butter trade with Canada. The New r Zealand Dairy Produce Board has through its London manager assisted materially in this successful trade campaign. , An Essential Requirement.

“in connection with all this publicity work it must clearly be borne in mind that no amount of publicity can compensate for indifferent quality or non-compliance with the Home customer’s requirements, even if these seem unreasonable or unconvincing to his supplier overseas. Moreover, as New Zealand’s most formidable competitors in British markets have long ago recognised, uniformity of quality and description are of far greater importance than occasional excellence, if confident and permanent custom is to be secured.”

Lord Bledisloe went on to give figures showing that during the year 1930; 31 New Zealand had exported to the United Kingdom record quantities of apples, butter, cheese, lamb, pears and pork—a condition due largely to the board’s propaganda. Dealing next with the present situation of the board and .the substantial curtailment of its grants by the British Government, his Excellency said that the bulk of the board’s grants for profitable lines of research in New Zealand were made on the basis of equal subsidisation by the New Zealand Government. This latter quota could only be maintained if the Government had behind it the sympathetic backing of the ' New Zealand public. “As it is difficult to imagine a more remunerative investment, especially in days of industrial depression, from the standpoint of New Zealand’s future economic prosperity than these relatively small Government grants,” his Excellency said, “I venture to express the earnest hope that such encouragement from the taxpayers of this country will be enthusiastically given, if only on the ground that the research work thus financed is bound ultimately in its results to ease materially the heavy burden which they' now have to carry. Such annual expenditure by the Government on research work of such vital importance to this Dominion does not exceed £lO,OOO a year, or the equivalent of the interest on the capital cost of a single important public building in a New Zealand city.”