NEW ZEALAND GOODS

Evening Star, Issue 15479, 29 April 1914, Page 4

NEW ZEALAND GOODS

DOMINION INDUSTRIES WEEK,

[Special xo the Stab.]

AUCKLAND, April 29. An interesting suggestion that Dominion Industries Week should be celebrated simultaneously from end to end of New Zealand was made by the president of the Auckland Industrial Association, Mr Sydney Harbutt, yesterday afternoon. He was of opinion that the most had not been made of the opportunities afforded by past occasions on which “Industries Week” had been observed. Ho thought that Government might lend aid to the movement by instituting special railway excursions for the occasion, and by arranging to have published in the ‘ School Journal ’ special articles on colonial manufactures, with occasional contributions dealing in a descriptive way with visits to the Important factories. In this way, he suggested that the idea of the value and importance of New Zealand-made goods would be impressed on the_ voung minds, and advantage of patronising home products would he inculcated.

Mr Harbutt said lie would suggest to manufacturers that during the special week their factories should be thrown open for visits by as many parties of school children as possible. “My firm conviction,” he added, “is that far more can be done in this way than by the holding of exhibitions on the scale of the one which has just closed in Auckland, whore so much is made of the amusements section.” This last observation met with cordial approval from the business and professional men present at the annual meeting of the Industrial Association. Another suggestion that will probably be taken up locally with eagerness was that a suitable building be secured for the demonstration of working machinery, showing goods in process of manufacture. It- is not generally recognised in Auckland that one of the fatal weaknesses of the recent exhibition as an educational factor was the entire absence of working models and the over-attention paid to showy exhibits of made-up goods.