CONDITIONS IN ENGLAND

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19980, 23 December 1926, Page 11

CONDITIONS IN ENGLAND

A GLOOMY PICTURE. NEW ZEALAND PRODUCTS. INSUFFICIENT PUBLICITY. OTHER COUNTRIES ACTIVE. (Special to Daily Times.) WELLINGTON, December 22. A somewhat dark picture of English conditions is drawn by Mr E. Bold, land purchase officer of the Public Works Department, who returned from a trip to England on Tuesday by the Athemc. He sees no signs of immediate improvement. His observations and investigations have convinced him that New Zealand lags behind the other overseas portions of the Empire in the matter of advertising its wares. DISASTROUS STRIKES. “The ill-starred great general strike had just terminated when I arrived in England,” said Mr Bold to a Dominion reporter, “and my stay lasted over the first' six months of the subsequent coal miners’ strike. This strike, together with the previous few years of industrial depression, has undoubtedly created a position of extreme gravity in regard to the sale returns of New Zealand products for some time to come, and it is the opinion of responsible men that the unseen and intricate results of the struggle will continue to be felt for a long time in cost of production and in unemployment. It would be unwise, in my opinion, to count on any quick recovery or stability in the prices obtainable tor New Zealand products. The position at present is one of deep gloom, the starting point of which was obviously the boom w hich ended about five years ago, alter the flotation of many manufacturing concerns at boom values, and in ~ which many of thg operatives placed their whole savings, with disastrous results. After five years of short time, over two thirds of Lancashire’s 57,000,000 spindles and 800,000 looms are working only halftime. Towns like Oldham, Burnley, Blackburn, Colne, Nelson, and Accrington have had their tragedies and tragic comedies, both among masters and men, ‘ seven figure ’ men (millionaires and concerns), formerly regarded as eminently sound, sinking into bankruptcy. The operatives involved in such ‘ calls ’ on shares, struggle as they may, their remaining years., will net get rid of their indebtedness to the cotton mills refloated at 10 times their share value. Many have sought court sanction to reduce capital. Many others struggle to cope with the inflated overhead cnarges, and many are in the hands of the banks to whom such profits as are made pass as interest on overdrafts. The shares of a number of mills cannot be given away, except with monetary inducements. “Such a position which is almost typical of other industries has obviously drained the resources of the middle and working classes, and now through the further unemployment caused by the coal strike, savings have disappeared, and debts have been incurred which even the return of prosperous times-—not yet even on the horizon - *wili take a long time to recover and re-instate. RAILWAY REVENUE REDUCED.

“It is usually recognised that the position of the railways is a clear index of the real situation,’’ continued Mr Bold. ‘When a nation is prosperous the railways naturally do good business, but since the coal stoppage, so a leading railway manager states, the position is that factory alter factory has had to close down, and tne volume of transport has continually declined. At the same time the people have become impoverished and have' less money to spend. He stated that during the six months’ coal stoppage the revenue of the four great English railway companies fell £25 000,000 as compared with the previous year, and that nearly 70,000,000 fewer people travelled on the railways during the same period. Another serious handicap to industrial recovery,” said Mr Bold, is the aftermath of tne high amount of relief which has been, and is still being, given to unemployed families consequent on the coal strike, which relief has to be provided out of local rates, and which are now constantly increasing to the great alarm of traders and householders, and is recognised as being equivalent to a further reduction in the wages of the workers, and Ldidinv to an increase in the prices of all commodities for many years, dairy produce market. “In the face of the above facts, winch I do not think are in the least overdrawn, continued Mr Bold, “it seems hopeless to expect any immediate improvement in the prices obtainable for our huge and vital exports of primary products, even l£the ®? are handled and pushed in the efficient and adequate manner. Although I found New Zealand mutton lamb, and fruit oftentimes fairly displayed as such in retail establishments, I had not the personal good fortune to find New Zealand butter or cheese similarly displayed, although I travelled about considerably and made many inquiries. I assume, however, that it must be displayed in some parts of the country. I saw many displays of ‘Empfre’ butter and ‘Danish’ butter with prices generally 3d per lb in favour of the latter and I was informed that New Zealand butter was largely, retailed under the designation of ‘Empire’ butter, and as a groceA supply of such is[Probably alternately derived, according to market rates Zealand, Australia, Canada, Ireland" etc., this method is obviously no advertisement for the New Zealand article. After this I did not greatly wonder at my friends saying that New Zealand butter could not be relied on, and that they only boueht it for cooking purposes. Moieever, one could not fail to observe that Canada and Australia are specially and effectively booming their individual products by advertisements in popular newspapers and attractive placards on trams h«ses and hoardings throughout the country in a way which does not appear to heaven distantly approached by the New Zealand controllers, and I think this a Mint which, hould be immediately and boafdslf are" to 8 have a “At the recent dairy show at Islington (London) it is claimed that all the D old, silver'd bronze medals for butter were taken by Australian butter against al comers from many different countries all over the world, and the director of Australian trade publicity saw to it that the fact was blazoned far and vyide by doublecolumn advertisements in the newspapers. Sm-elv our dairy farmers may fairly ask, ‘Where was New Zealand?’ It is not sufficient to deliver prune goods on the English market and wait for the British public to discover them for themselves, and push have been admftted tuTe the secret of the Americans' commercial success, and thes so oner New Zealand adopts similar methods the better it will be for us. The, Empire Marketing Board’s existing advertising campaign cannot, of course, discriminate in favour of New Zealand’s products to the exclusion of goods from other parts of the Empire, and this is where supplementary boosting fs required from the New Zealand authorities. No matter how satisfactory the quality and channels of distribution may be, it is necessary in our interests to ensure the creation of a special preference and desire in the minds of the consuming public for our particular products, either on the score of patriotism, sentiment, or intrinsic value, though in my opinion the latter is the most effective to strike, and this seems obviously the duty of the various control boards. Frankly, I have returned home fully convinced that our producersat the present time are getting badly left ' in the race for a place in the sun in the great market overseas. I also telt that not only in the selling of their productions Canada and Australia are leaving us far behind in the race, but also in attracting a suitable class of emigrants. “I visited some of the large agricultural shows, of which there are a great number throughout the country every year, and which are attended by hundreds of thousands of farmers and farm workers, and in each case Canada and Australia had small tents exhibiting samples of produce and piles of illustrated literature extolling the advantages of emigration thereto, which I saw being carried away by hundreds and hundreds of visitors for- reading at home, and I was greatly disappointed at being unable to find New Zealand on the map as far as those shows were concerned. It seemed to me to he a glorious opportunity for cheaply interesting the 76tf class of peojle that New Zealand

needs absolutely lost to our competitors. “Towards the end of my visit, meat prices, both English and imported, experienced successive drops of from Id to 2d per pound, and it was stated that one chief cause was the shortage of coal for cooking in the country districts, as itrwas most unusual for supplies to exceed the demand at that time of the year, though there is no doubt that the strenuous meat war which is still going on between the various interests in the Argentine trad# is having a deleterious effect on meaf prices generally.”