'MADE IN JAPAN."

Free Lance, Volume XV, Issue 799, 22 October 1915, Page 8

'MADE IN JAPAN."

Britain's New Industrial Rival.

NEW Zealanders one and all \ havegood reason to be grateful to Japan: and the. Japanese for the spontaneous, prompt and. efficient aid given by the land of the Rising Sun to the British cause.- Also, it may be admitted that a. greater intimacy of commercial relations between Japan and - the Dominion may prove of no small.. value to both countries. Nevertheless," we view with a certain distrust and anxiety the strenuous and well-organised attempts now being made by Japanese--manufacturers to capture the Australian and New Zealand markets in many h lines of goods which in the past have--been supplied by Great Britain, Get-'-many, and the United States. A strict - r "taboo" • should, of course, be placed/both now and! after the war, upon-any-thing and everything "Made in Germany," for every penny paid, for Hun--made goods will be indirectly devoted' to reconstructing the military* and naval strength of a country which will—let* no mistake be made on that point—be still our enemy, for many years after the present stupendous struggle ha&. ended.

It seems to us that in our purchases of the future we should, first of all, study the interests-of our own country, and, secondly, those of the - Mother Country. If the articles we require and cannot make ourselves can be made in Great Britain, then it is out? bounden duty to give the British, manufacturers a preference, and a real, practical, substantial preference at that, over any Asiatic competitor and rival. Specially should our merchants, storekeepers, and the consumers generally refrain from any haste to give Japanese-made goods a secure footing on the New Zealand market.

The British still less the New Zealand manufacturer—• whose workers desire, and rightly de~. sire, to live in something like decent comfort (as the western nations understand comfort), cannot hope to compete against the long hours, the scanty wages, and other special conditions which could enable his Japanese rival to "cut prices," and . flood, if permitted, these _ British communities with cheap Asiatic-made goods. It is no s l ight, no offence to Japanese national vanity and honour that a British community, such as New Zealand, should nrefer British or New Zealand-made. goods, even at an enhanced cost. Japan herself _ adopts the strongest protectionist nnlicv. and above all nations is the •most keenly alive to keeping heT. own trade.in her own hands. She has helped in the war. and for such helt> we are and deeplv grateful. But the. swamning of Australasia with cheap Japanese manufactures would be a foolishlv extravagant price to pay for that he 1 !").