NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20961, 26 August 1931, Page 8

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

EMPIRE MARKETING BOARD. .Indued by its effect on the sales in the I'nited Kingdom of the products of the Empire, for results are the criteria by which all advertising schemes must ultimately lie judged, the work of the Empire Marketing Board has justified itself, says the Times Trade Supplement. The board's report for the period ending in 1929 showed that 22 commodities from the Empire were imported in greater quantities than ever before. Twenty-five new records were set up during 1929-30 in regard to the volume of imports of certain Empire foodstuffs. In the year that has just elapsed nearly half these did even better, while a substantial list of commodities which failed in the previous year to reach the highest point hitherto recorded exceeded all earlier figures. These facts should be made generally known throughout the Empire oversea, fn the first place, it is important that the people there should know that the quid pro quo given by Mr. Baldwin's Government in compensation for the preferentinl treatment tentatively arranged at the Imperial Conference in 1926, though not implemented by the British Government, lias been of real value; and, in the second place, because it is clear that these results could not have been achieved unless the British people were predisposed to give preference to the products of the Empire. On the other hand, it is gratifying to learn that more scientific attention has been paid by Empire producers to the need for maintaining high quality by giading and orderly marketing. It should be remembered that the board is devoting attention to many activities which cannot give immediate results; in particular certain branches of scientific research work, though likely to give rich rewards in the future, cannot be brought to early fruition, while work done in the schools, though not without present influence on the parents of the pupils, will be of greatest advantage ■when the children of to-day become the fathers and housewives of to-morrow.

MAIL SUBSIDIES FOR DEFENCE. The policy under which large sums are being paid as mail subsidies by the United States Government was expounded in an address recently by the Postmaster-Gen-eral, Mr. Walter F. Brown. He stated that under the provisions of the JonesWhite Merchant Marine Act, the Post Office Department has so far awarded 41 ocean-mail contracts on trade routes from American ports. These contracts provide compensation afc mileage rates for the transportation of the mails, but they also require the shipping companies to build a large number of new vessels, to be placed in service on the various trade routes. The fleet to bo launched under this programme will consist of 100 fast cargo and passenger ships of around 900,000 gross tons, and will cost approximately £60,000,000. Twenty-four ships have been completed and as many more are under construction. Commencing at £2,500,0 CX) in 1929-30, the ocean mail subsidies will ultimately reach £6.000,000 a year, and the total payments for the 10 years' term of the existing 41 contracts will be £56,000,000. "This is a substantial sum," Mr. Brown added. "But it is negligible when we consider that it will give us a nucleus for an expanded and modernised merchant marine providing a regular and sjjeedy mail, passenger and freight service to the world's ports. It is no more than a premium which the nation is paying for insurance against the hazards of trade competition and the dangers of foreign aggression—against a recurrence of the events of 1916, 1917 and 1918, when our Government was compelled to spend literally billions of dollars to improvise a merchant fleet to move our crops and our manufactures to foreign markets, and, later, to move our troops to the theatre of war."

FOSTERING AIR SERVICES. The United States Government regards commercial aviation as equally vital to commerce and industry and indispensable to national defence. Mr. Brown said that United States mail is flown daily over 23 domestic routes totalling more than 22.000 miles, and over foreign lines totalling approximately 13,000 miles. The air maiJ in 1930 carried mote than 320,000,000 pieces of mail. In spite of this enormous development the air mail is far from selfsustaining. Air mail postage pays for less than half of the actual cost of handling. The remainder comes from general appropriations, amounting to £3,500,000 a year. "Our purpose is to popularise air transportation and air travel," said Mr. Brown, "so that the people of our country will get the habit of using air transport in the ordinary affairs of their lives—in travelling, in sending merchandise and communications—just as they use the railroad, the motor-bus, and the steamship. Our object is to develop a nation-wide network of air lines to carry passengers and express, upon which transportation of the mails will be only an incidental operation, as it is to-day on railroad and steamship lines. We are making progress. People are acquiring the habit of flying. . . . When you use the air mail you are not, only serving yourself or giving pleasure to your friends; you are aiding in the establishment of a great traffic system which is vital to the progress of our nation; you are helping in the creation of special facilities for air navigation—the development of safe, efficient and fast aeroplanes—and the training of a flying personnel without which our country in the event of war would instantly be exposed to disaster."