A CHANCE FOR BRITAIN.
TRADE IN NEW ZEALAND. Manufacturers in Great Brittain have a market in New Zealand wliich oilers great opportunities for development. Nowhere within the Empire are people more eager to buy all-British goods or more willing to resist the temptation of dealing with cheaper foreign competitors, writes Sir Percival Phillips, who recently visited the Dominion, in the London Daily Mail. Yet 'business men complain to me that trade interests in the Mother Country seem singularly blind or indifferent to the possibilities for increasing their exports. I have been told repeatedly that 'Heme firms do not take sufficient interest in the requirements of Dominion customers.. They are willing to sell their wares, but only the wares they are prepared to offer —not necessarily what the -New Zealander wants.
Why, ask New Zealand importers and traders, cannot our own people show as keen a desire to capture orders which by right are theirs? CONTR ACT!’ GOES TO' U.S.
An example of this policy of “inelestieity” was given me recently. Tenders were invited several months ago for a supply of macadam. The lowest price was quoted from the United States. In the desire to keep the order from going to a foreign firm, it was suggested to the firm in Great Britain which named the next lowest figure that it might make certain unimportant alterations in its offer and thus secure the contract.
The answer was a refusal. The contract, involving about £7OOO, liad to go to America. In the words of one Auckland business man, ‘‘The people, at Home won’t cater to our. market. They make .a certain thing. You can take it or leave it. Other countries say, ‘You want a certain thing? We will supply it.’ ” For example, motor-cars. The roads ill New Zealand are .still in a primitive state. There are a. few good main highways, hut many shockingly bad roads. The ordinary British car i.s wholly unsuited for negotiating such rough tracks. It lacks the necessary clearance, for one thing. .American ears have been pouring into the Dominion because they meet the needs of the people. The firms that make them have*been quick to realise the fact.
With the extension of the new system of concrete roads, motor-cycles will become increasingly popular. lam told there is a fine opportunity for British makers to establish themselves here. Another complaint is that manufacturers in Great Britain have not enough direct represenatives here. They are content with local agents. BRITAIN TOO SLOW. Prompt delivery .i.s a powerful incentive to further trade. Here, again, I am told that Great Britain is inclined to lag behind. Why, it is asked here, should more electric lamps have come into New Zealand last year from Holland and the United States together than from England? Why should such things as sparking plugs, aluminium, ware, electrical appliances, tyres, and other articles too numerous to mention which find a ready market and come in greater quantities be almost a- foreign monopoly ? The future prosperity of New Zealand is hound up with the development of hydro-electric power, and in this field Home manufacturers have a market which should prove highly profitable. Ten millions are being spent at present on laying down plants which will extend the use of this new motive power in many areas. New Zealand wants practically everything except woollen goods —which she is now making with considerable success—and foodstuffs. She wants highclass articles, not cheap trash, and she wants themi of British origin. Seventy per cent, of her foreign trade last year was with the United Kingdom. If her (business men had their way, nothing would he bought outside the Empire. But they ask for eneouragment from the industries .in the Mother Country.
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Bibliographic details
Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 2 December 1925, Page 10
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620A CHANCE FOR BRITAIN. Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 2 December 1925, Page 10
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