“MANY OUT-OF-DATE”

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22440, 22 September 1947, Page 6

“MANY OUT-OF-DATE”

N.Z. ELECTRIC GOODS H.B. MAN'S OPINION (P.A.) HASTINGS, Sept. 20. In reply today to statements by the New Zealand Federation of the Electrical Manufacturers and the New Zealand Electric Range Manufacturers’ Association, Mr. M. S. Chambers, a member of the Hawke's Bay..Electric-Power Board, said he would only reiterate that a great many of the New Zealand-made electrical appliances were hopelessly out of date and of very poor quality. “Twenty years ago one could readily buy an electric range with a warming oven and. if required, two ovens and four or six top elements,” Mr. Chambers said today. "If the primary producer requires something larger than the ordinary standard range available in this country he is unable to procure it. "In fairness to the manufacturers, I would state that they are agreeable to the importation of a limited number of up-to-date ranges with a warming oven, thermostatic control, and time switches, but the overseas manufacturers are not in favour of making these available because there is no market for a large quantity of their products and no doubt they fear their models will be copied.” Mr, Chambers said the statement that “the design, finish and performance of local appliances are well ahead of similar appliances recently landed in New Zealand from overseas” was probably correct simply because modern toasters, ranges, washing machines, freezers, and refrigerators were not being imported. “Satisfied Users”

As to a reference of “thousands of satisfied users,” it seemed to him a question of where ignorance was bliss

Saying he had recently tried to buy a good toaster, knowing it was hopeless to obtain a modern automatic one, MrChambers mentioned that one retailer had informed him that recently he had received a shipment of ordinary New Zealand-made single-element toasters which were of such poor quality that he Dreferred not to sell them, and returned them to the makers.

Mr. Chambers said his only reply to Mr. C. S. Peate, chairman of the New Zealand Electric Range Manufacturers’ Association, was that more than 20 years ago he bought an electric range, which was still going strong, with a large oven and warming oven, whereas today it seemed impossible to get one with even a warming oven. If, as Mr. Peate said, the manufacturers were today producing a range equal in duality, design and performance to those being produced in the United Kingdom and Canada, why were they not making them available to the public?