GERMANS RUSH MARKETS.

Manawatu Times, Volume XLII, Issue 1728, 8 January 1921, Page 8

GERMANS RUSH MARKETS.

PRICE-CUTTING CAMPAIGN. SEEK RECOVERY OF MAGNETO MONOPOLY. Lcforc the war (says a correspondent of Hie “Morning Post”) magnetos were practically a German monopoly, and every motor car was fitted with one of these machines, principally of the Bosch type. One or two British firms did turn out magnetos, but in very small numbers, and the insistence of motor makers and motor users on the Bosch type was not helpful to the home industry. FALLACY OF GERMAN SUPERIORITY. As in so many oilier cases, the stern necessities of war led to the foundations being laid in this country of the magneto and ignition industry. Tire supplies of German-made magnetos soon ran out, and the few obtained from America did not go far to meeting requirements. British firms set to work, and specially exploded the fallacy that there was a secret attached to the production of German magnetos. Soon they were turning out machines in sufficient numbers to meet the grea.t demands for motor cars, motor cycles, motor vehicles of all kinds, motor launches, aeroplanes, and airships. When the war ended, and industry began to change over from war to peace-time production, it was proved that the British makes of magnetos had been successful from the point of view of quality as well as of quantity. Builders and purchasers of motor cars were perfectly satisfied to have British magnetos installed. It is safe to ! ay that practically every motor vehicle turned out in the country this year carries a British magneto. UNDERCUTTING CAMPAIGN. Tliis is regarded as only the beginning of attempts to return to the oldtime condition of affairs—attempts, which, if not checked, will jeopardise one of the key industries of the country. If the magneto and the ignition industry is to be preserved and developed in the interests of national defence and national well-being it must certainly be safeguarded for a period against foreign competition; otherwise, the hold which the dozen firms comprising the British Ignition Apparatus Association have obtained on the home market to-day will gradually slip from their grasp, not because. of the superiority of the German machine, but rather on account of the prices which an older established industry and other conditions enable our former enemies to quote. The British magneto trade is one of those key industries which is looking for protection, through prohibition of imports, to the new Bill which the Government will introduce this session. Should protection not be forthcoming, there is a danger that the Industry may decline, and that thereby, in addition to a weakening of the national strength, the ranks of unemployment will be further swelled.