BRITISH INDUSTRIES.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 7 September 1925, Page 10

BRITISH INDUSTRIES.

ANNUAL FAIR RESUMED.

trade within the empire

The office of His Majesty’s Trade Commissioner in New Zealand has received a cablegram from the Department of Overseas Trade in London announcing that the British Industries Fair will be held both in London and Birmingham during the last fortnight in February, 192 G. This news marks the resumption of the London section of this famous annual fair, which section was last year, for the first time, postponed in order that manufacturers should concentrate their efforts upon their displays at the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley. The Fair next year will be of special interest in that it now forms, a feature of the ‘‘Buy British Gopds” campaign recently inaugurated at Home with great vigour as the result of the recommendations of the Imperial Economic Committee. Efforts, supported by the full weight of public sentiment, are being niade to strengthen the bonds of intra-Empire trade, by popularising and extending the use of the products of New Zealand and the other Dominions and colonies. Exhibition trains are being organised, displays of Empire goods, are a feature of the leading department stores and other retail establishments, whilst by active propaganda the British housewife is having her desire to shop “within the. Empire” stimulated as never before. Complementary to these steps, and part of the same great movement towards a self-sufficing Empire, are the intensified endeavours which are being made to increase the sales of British manufactures throughout the Empire. Thus it is that the next British Industries Fair may be expected to make an even more pronounced appeal than usual to the buyers from New Zealand and the other Dominions.

No pains are. spared to put the visitor from overseas at his ease and facilitate his enquiries. A special club is provided for him with reading and writing rooms, whilst specially qualified, officers are in attendance who can give detailed information regarding sources of supply, of the manufactures sought, shipping and transport facilities, customs, duties, etc. His investigations are simplified with economy of time and expense by the unique concentration afforded by the grouping system. He will find all the exhibitors of a particular class of goods within a very limited area, enabling speedy and accurate comparisons to be made, whilst t-lie fact that only manufacturers are permitted to participate gives him the assurance that lie is in direct personal touch with the original producers of the articles in which he is interested. Not only is he able to discuss the particular requirements of his market, but he is also often able to arrange. for visits to works where technical points can profitably be examined. The British Industries Fair was first held in London in 1915. with the object, of enabling the overseas buyer to obtain a rapid, but nevertheless thorough and comprehensive survey of the leading British products, particularly those in which Continental competition had been prominent. Immediately proving an unqualified success, it lias made continued progress and can justly claim to be the. most important national trade fair in the world, attended each year by thousands of important overseas buyers. It was early found necessary to divide it into the two sections in which it is now held.