GERMAN-MADE GOODS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVII, Issue 17428, 25 March 1920, Page 6

GERMAN-MADE GOODS.

.l ~ - ■■ ■■ . I! I.! ! LIN V -■;'•' "-;' ON SALE IN ROTORUA. '1 r . \ - POSITION .OP SSt)PKEEPEES. _ LARGE PEE-WAE STOCKS. r [ax TH.KGE.VI»n.-»OVnJ coßUEsroNpEinc.j ; ROJTORIJA, -VTednesday. .'. A stateuient recently b appeared m ! : a southern paper to the effect that numerous articles can be purchased in the Dominion to-day with the tell-tale words, " Made in Germany "upon ttiem, and that,*-in par-! ticular,. "souvenirs'' of the thermal regions, articles made of delft, with views ! of the district, and postcards with photo- j graphs of Maori maidens, thermal activity, and pictures of the ■Sanatorium ! grounds, sold in Boterca, bore this indica' i tion of. enemy origin. The; statement.was! supplemented by : .'-the" remark, "It hasbeen stated^^*i^t German goods are. arfiving in, the Dominion by way of America." The writer of the article, by the way, ventured the surmise that " immense , stocks , of German goods must have been in Koto- ' rua prior to the war." : y '■-. . ~/*y •"' " Inquiries made among business people at Botoruk show that this surmise is correct as far as the " souvenirs " referred to are concerned, and that it is also correct that postcards and "other "nicknacks " : of German manufacture, are ' on sale. ? The first fact explains the second. Persons engaged in the business of vending these articles state that it was necessary .to order them in very large quantities in order to obtain them at the prices quoted, with * the result that shopkeepers acquired stocks sufficient to last for some years. They have considerable portions of those stocks still on hand,- unsold balances being- the • greater, on account of the falling off in the sale of such, articles during the war. - i .The vendors ■• state that not a single postcard or other "isonvenirs '* of enemy manufacture, has been obtained since the beginning of .the late war, and they expressed scepticism as tiie " alleged arrival of German goods in the Dominion at present time, either by way of America':or by any. other «route. It was pointed out .that the rate of exchange in America was a tolerably effectual barrier to the; importation of goods, German or otherwise, from that country, and that it was hardly likely, s considering the disturbed state of affairs in Germany that goods from that country could yet have reached.New. Zealand since the conclusion of the war. ' r As regards .the orders for German goods in pre-war days, it was stated that, in many dSses these ordena-were not "sent to Germany direct, nor given to representatives "German firms. They were usually given to representatives of British businesses, or sent to * Britain to well-known firms. "The goods * were obtained from Germany or Austria by. the latter epnply because -they could be procured: there at much "cheaper rates than were charged in - Britain. - ; It is said, indeed, that certahv: producers of such.- articles as Christmas ■ cards followed this practice, and that | their productions, ' while ' bearing their names and English addresses, also bore" the " made in Germany ** brand. |-?flt may be added that the shopkeepers of Botorua, .though still embarrassed with unsold balances of these foreign goods, l [ which, they could, hardly be expected; to | destroy, -nave, done what they could "to [obtain* British-made articles in similar lines, and that English postcards and English porcelain, bearing "souvenir" picI tures, may be purchased in their establishments. * ■•'" ' ■ '-''