“Please Mr. Nash.: Plea For British Goods

Greymouth Evening Star, 11 February 1947, Page 10

“Please Mr. Nash.: Plea For British Goods

Under the title “Please, Mr. Nash, let us have some of these lovely British things,” the N.Z. Draper and Allied Retailer in its current issue says that one way in which the Dominion could help Britain in her brave effort at post-war rehabilitation would be by generous patronage of her goods offered for export. “It would be good policy on the part of our Government to become a little less grudging,” the article states. “Our women are clamouring for pretty things. Let them have them. Allow a little extravagance. Take some of the rigidity out of the strangulating system of controls, if only for a while. Britain, as never before in history, will be glad of our help in this direction. There can be too much emphasis on the purchase of capital goods and raw materials, needful as they are. Starved for Variety. “There is no market in all the world as starved for variety as our own New Zealand market. Both the war and the Government’s all too strict system of ‘import selection’ (to use the official words) are responsible. It is not that New Zealand lacks purchasing power.” A New Zealander turning the pages of an English trade magazine, entranced and bewildered by the beauty and variety of the many lovely things depicted in all the allure of high-qual-ity colour printing, must not envy the people of Britain, it is stated. Thev no more had the glorious articles and fabrics which filled the pages than had the people in New Zealand. Indeed, with the accent on the export trade, New Zealanders were much more likely to have them in comparative abundance earlier than the strictly rationed people of Britain. “When the full story is written, the

tale of Britain’s manufacturing drive for exports in the post-war years will be almost as absorbing and scarcely less to her credit than that of the hard years of the war itself.. . ._What the average British housewife is enduring to-day must be witnessed to be fully appreciated. ‘Shortage’ is a i word which she has come to hate. Every time she opens cupboard or wardrobe she is painfully aware of ■ it. To feed and clothe the children ’ adequately, without any thought, for [ luxuries, is her constant preoccupa(tion. The lovely things in the trade 1 and fashion magazines are not for her and her children —not yet. | “One can understand their feelings. , They wanted to reassure themselves that these half-forgotten things, these never-seen-before-things, really were | under production, if only for export. Textile Fabrics. In the 90,000 feet of floor space de--1 voted to the “Britain Can Make It” , Exhibition, a substantial amount was I allocated to textile fabrics and the newest in fashionable women’s and ; children’s wear. Stress was laid on i the fact that in the sections devoted j to fashions and fabrics the goods displayed were mainly those which would I be available in 1947 and 1948. | Ambassadors of British trade were ' going about the world seeking orders I and impressing on potential buyers ! . the fact that Britain was looking for custom. Commercial travellers 1 sought to emphasise that Britain was determined to become a real leader in i the world of fashion. I The people of New Zealand were lavish in their spending at Christmas. ' It was idle to contemplate how much more they would have spent had a fine range of overseas goods been available, it was stated.