EMPIRE SELF-HELP

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXXII, Issue 12533, 20 April 1935, Page 7

EMPIRE SELF-HELP

CAMPAIGN OPENS

NEW ZEALAND PRODUCE ON SHOW: AT NOTTINGHAM. LORD GALWAY’S SUPPORT. ANALYST’S WARNING AGAINST f FAKED BUTTER. (Special To The Times). LONDON, March 12. The New Zealand Dairy Prsduce Board has introduced a new kind of Sffkiipire trade propaganda among British consumers by illustrating the general idea of “Empire Self-Helf.” This takes the. form of reciprocal trade exhibitions, localised to meet the interests of the various centres in which New Zealand sales campaigns are conducted. The -first of these exhibitions, opened two weeks ago 'at Nottingham, has met with record success. The board will shortly open a sales,, drive in Preston, and early in Mayi will-launch an extensive reciprocal trade campaign in 'Liverpool, to synchronise with the “Empire Shopping Week” which will he conducted throughput Great Britain in conjunction with the celebration Or tho King’s Silver Jubilee. Following this, tho board plans to- hold similar reciprocal trade pushes in Birmingham and I 'other industrial centres. Id,ooo VISITORS. More than 15,000 people have already visited New Zealand’s exhibition at Nottingham, in which Midlands manufacturers have co-operat-ed with the hoard to demonstrate the mutual adantages to home industries and New Zealand primary producers of our growing trade within the Empire. Visitors to the display see bfftter and cheese from the farms of New Zealand, reproductions of everyday scenes in the Dominion, and, side by side with these, Nottingham products—lace, hosiery, bicycles, and type writers—which .arc bought in quantity, by the Dominion. The exhibition is an effective illustration of what Nottingham and New Zealand can and do send to each other across more than 12,000 miles of ocean. Newspapers in Nottingham and neighbouring towns have given the display generous treatment in news articles and pictures during the past fortnight, and this is reflected in the enthusiastic interest now being shown by the jjublic generally. Nottingham manufacturers exhibiting in the “shop” have posted notices throughout their works inviting their employees with their friends, to The display and to support the products o'f New Zealand, thereby increasing tho purchasing power of one of their best customers. Similar invitations have been enclosed in the weekly pay envelope of workers in the factories concerned. A TIMELY VISITThe Dairy Board was fortunate in securing the co-operation of Lord Galway, who visited tho exhibition a few days before he left England to take up his post as Governor-General off New Zealand. •Lord Galway is a Notts, man, and his visit to the New Zealand display—llls last official appearance in Nottingham—was, therefore, a particularly appropriate gesture. Lord Galway was greeted f>y Mr IT .E. Davis, London manager’of the board, and they made a thorough tour of the exhibits, accompanied by the Sheriff off Nottingham (Councillor Wallis Bincli), the Lady Mayoress ' (Mrs R. E. Ashworth), members of the Nottingham Chamber of Commerce, and representatives of the various trades concerned in the display. The new GovernorGeneral was deeply impressed by the exhibition as a means of emphasising the value of trade reciprocity: think it is an extraordinarily good display,” he said.- “The quality of the goods is marvellous, and 1 hope that by such -means the flow of trade will be increased in each direction.” Mr Davis also referred to Lord Galway’s appreciation in an interview with the Press. “Lord Galway agrees with us,” lie said, “that a visual example of the -< idea - of Empire self-help, definitely localised as in this exhibition, can do far more good than a lot of platform talk.” BRITISH INDUSTRIALISTS’ SUPPORT. At the end. of. his visit Lord Galway listened to several’ messages messages of congratulation to the organisers of the 'exhibition, rea’d by Alderman Sir Albert Atkey, DeputyPresident of the Nottingham Chamber of Commerce. “This exhibition of New Zealand primary produce and °f' secondary products exported to tec Dominion cannot fail to impress upon the public the intimate commercial ties which unite us, ’ wrote Lord Herbert Scott, President of tho Federation of British Industries. “I wish the venture every success, and trust it may be the means of increasing the mutual interchange of goods to our common interest.” Lord Trent, President of the No-t----t’ngham Chamber of Commerce, wrote“ Best wishes for the success olf your campaign for two-way traffic between this country and New Zealand. The voluntary development

of trade within the Empire is of especial. value today when business with foreign countries is so much harnpered/'by restrictions and reduced purchasing power.” Other messages were read from Mr L. S. Amery, M.P., Sir William Larke (director of the British Iron and Steel Federation) and Mr A. G. Palfreyman (chairman of the National Federation df Hosiery Manufacturers’ Associations.) BRITAIN’S BEST CUSTOMER. Throughout its Nottingham campaign The board has made effective use o,f the Board of Trade’s analysis of industrial conditions in 1934, which shows that Britain’s trade recovery has been due almost entirely to the development of Home and Empire markets. Empire countries, which now take more British manufactures than all foreign countries combined were responsible for no less than 78 per cent of the improvement in Britain’s export trade during the past .year. The United Kingdom increased her Empire imports by £22, 328,000, and her expoi-t to the Empire were up by £22,109,000 —a pound for pound exchange. Her foreign imports on the other hand, increased £34,98(3,000 but her foreign exports were up by only £6,090,000 a return of only 3/6 for every additional pound she spent outside the Empire. New Zealand in proportion to populat.'on was again Britain’s best customer with .an average of £7 Ss per head; flic Irish Free State second, with an average purchase of £6 9s 0d per head; Australia, third (£3 18s 9.1); Denmark, lourth but first among foreign countries (£3 13s Id) BUTTER-FAKING. New methods of food adulteration by persons possessed of an inventive genius worthy of a better cause” arc complained o'f by Mr A. R. Tankard, F.1.C., City Analyst tor Hull, in an official report which has just been issued by the New Zealand Dairy Produce Board in ucw,s article form to the Press. He refers particularly to new methods of butter-faking (Hull is an important port of entry for foreign butter). “Tiie artificial colouring of winter butter,” says Mr Tankard, “which in most European countries is usually very pale in its natural state, is undesirable because it deceives the buyer as to the nutritive value of his purchase. It is becoming more and more certain that -ueli successful colouring is objectionable, since natural butter lias a colour which is a definite index of its value as regards certain lipocliromes’ which are believed to be related directly to the vitamin A content of butter.” Another innovation, he points out, is the addition of diacetyl which gives a rich aroma to butters deficient in this respect. This, with added colouring-matter to help it. leads the buyer to choose such butter because of its “rich” appearance and flavour. The most serious aspect off thin is that the added diacetyl makes the butter liable to turn rancid earlier than would normally be the case. Diacetyl moreover, is an oxidant which probably lias a deleterious affect on the vitamin A content of the butter, thus reducing its nutritive value. “A butter which has deteriorated,” states the analyst, “may bo treated by this means to give the impression that is a fresh product.'' He urges that in the interests of the consumer all such practices should tie prohibited by law.