USE OF ELECTRICITY

Manawatu Standard, Volume L, Issue 115, 11 April 1930, Page 13

USE OF ELECTRICITY

NEW ZEALAND PEOPLE. ENGLISHMAN’S IMPRESSIONS. At a luncheon at the Hotel Cecil in London under the auspices of the engineering section of the Incorporated Society of British Advertisers, Mr E. E. Sharp gave an address on “Lessons Learned from a Business Tour in Australia and New Zealand.” Mr Sharp stated that he found the people of New Zealand to be very receptive of new ideas; anxious to learn and anxious to receive news of progress in other parts of the world. The people were strikingly loyal both to English goods and to the Old Country. One municipal engineer put the matter in a very plain way by saying: “If I bought foreign apparatus I should lose' my job.” . Unfortunately, there seemed to be too many instances occurring at Home where the municipal engineer tended to seek foreign tenders, and to recommend them for acceptance. He found that the word England and all it- implied was more popular and had greater sentimental appeal, than the word “British,” and he strongly advised the marking of goods as “Made in England” rather than “British Made,” and had altered the labels on goods manufactured by the firm with which he was connected accordingly. ..There were two reasons for this: firstly, “British” covered colonies as well as the Old Country, and, secondly, in Newfoundland the people - had gained the idea, and he feared rightly so, that the word “British” in the title of a firm too often covered German or American origin or capital, and the New Zealauder felt that the company laws should be altered to obviate this. There was a very marked and strong anti-German feeling in the country and, generally speaking, England came well first in the, matter of preference for country of origin for manufactured electrical goods, then America, while Swedish appliances of- certain kinds were gaining in popularity. Many, in fact most, of the firms in New Zealand had the benefits of electricity supply. Electric milking machines had actually created a fresh lead in some districts, and practically every farmer used them. Generally speaking, the country was rather backward in the use of modern lighting fittings and shop window lighting, and tho use of signs was in a primitive state.