NEW ZEALAND GOODS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19889, 7 March 1928, Page 10

NEW ZEALAND GOODS.

As a means of placating the "very strong prejudice on the part of many retailers" against goods being branded as "Made in New Zealand," the president of the Manufacturers' Federation has invited the various branches of the organisation to express their opinions on a suggestion that domestic productions should be marked "British made." From the public point of view, it is an extremely ill-advised proposal. Goods made in the Dominion are certainly British, but, as the president of the federation himself admitted, the only purpose of emphasising the fact of origin within the Empire would be to conceal the fact of origin within New Zealand. As Mr. Sutherland Ross says, it would be telling the truth but inferring the opposite; or as Mr. Lunn has pharaphrased it, fostering a false impression. The proper course is to ascertain the reasons for whatever prejudice exists and remove it by education of retailers and consumers. Efforts in that direction have already been made. Have they failed so completely that the objective is already to be abandoned 1 There are many articles made in New Zealand which command the utmost confidence of purchasers within the Dominion, and it evidently pays their manufacturers to parade the fact that they are made in New Zealand. Surely it would be better for the manufacturers to learn the secrets of such success and apply them to their own products than to resort to a measure of expediency that would certainly have most mischievous effects.