“BUY BRITISH GOODS.”

Otago Witness, Issue 3803, 1 February 1927, Page 10

“BUY BRITISH GOODS.”

A DESIRABLE SLOGAN. Lieutenant-Colonel J. Y. Foster, ol the British Territorial Force, V.D., J.P., who is accompanied by his son, is now on his • fourth visit to New Zealand, the last having been made about four years ago. Ho is the head of the firm of Joseph Foster and Sons, manufacturers of newspaper machinery and other engineering plant, of Preston, Lancashire, and London. He xvas Mayor of the City of Preston in 1899-1900, .and was elected an aiderman in 1901. During the late war the plant of the xvorks was engaged in making gun mountings for 18-pounders for the Ministry of Munitions. In an interview xvith our representative on Wednesday last Mr Foster spoke of the tendency for the British dominions to go to the United States for large quantities of machinery and other goods. Why this was so he could not understand, and people whom he had spoken to on the matter in New Zealand had also told him that they could not explain the tendency. If they were only given the opportunity many English firms were in a position to quote at rates that would compare favourably with American prices, and ho thought that considering the good feeling to the Motherland always noticeable in the dominions something more could be expected in the business relations between the two. lie did not, however, desire to introduce any sentiment into the argument. Taking a strictly business basis, the British manufacturer could serve the dominions just as well as and better than the American manufacturer. Speaking not only as a manufacturer, but as a xvellwisher of the Empire, his advice was “Buy British goods.” Touching on the industrial prospects in the Old Country, Colonel Foster said that xvith the passing of the coal strike the industries had commenced to revive, and the factories were busy in overtaking the orders held up during the trouble. Many firms, hwvever, had kept going during that time, although on a very curtailed basis, xvith the assistance of imported coal. In the case of his oxvn firm 800 men xvere generally employed, and it had been a difficult matter to keep the plant in actipn. Ho added that some good bad come out of the strike, because the new agreements with the industrial unions xvere for three or five years, which would give things a chance to settle down, and an opportunity to England to try and regain hcr lost trade and pre-xvartime prosperity.