Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, SAT., OCT. 2, 1926. HELP THE EMPIRE

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LII, Issue 17154, 2 October 1926, Page 4

Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, SAT., OCT. 2, 1926. HELP THE EMPIRE

Sentiment and self-interest alike dictate the grant of a special ami marked preference for Empire products. Sentiment is rooted and grounded in the fact that the Empire has been built up by the enterprise, the courage and the sacrifice, of our progenitors, and held together in time of direst peril by the supreme sacrifice of our present generation. Sentiment calls us as members of the Imperial family to help one another, to stand together in times of great national emergency, and to loyally support our common cause, the building up of a great prosperous Empire. Selfinterest appeals to our judgment and our patriotism with, the salient, indisputable argument that, if we Combine to buy British goods, and thereby help the Empire, we are helping ourselves. Wo ko£p the money within the family, and give scope for the occupation of members of the family in useful industrial pursuits. The average household of five persons in this Dominion spends on -British goods £7f> a year. It. is recognised and acknowledged ns a substantial help by people at Home, and has led to the cultivation of a strong feeling in favor of New Zealand produce. The family of five persons' in the United States (which country, incidentally, penalises British goods' by a tariff of exceptional severity) buys only about £2 10s worth of British goods. With these figures before them folks in Britain are seeing that, self-interest directs them to conlino their purchases wherever possible to the products of the Empire. The argument holds’ just .as strongly for us. Britain is New Zealand’s best market for all her products; Britain has supplied the bulk of the capital with which her lands have been opened and her industries developed. Self-interest demands that wo should trade preferentially with our financial backer

and our best customer. We are not doing all we might do in this respect. In round figures the United Kingdom buys SO per cent of what we have to sell abroad, and another 0 per edit, is sold within the Empire, while less than 14 per cent, is bought by foreign countries. Of our imports last year about 49 per cent, came from the United Kingdom, 24 per cent, from other parts of the Empire, and 27 per cent, from foreign countries. Thus with all our goodwill and our sympathy with the principle of trading within the Empire we buy nearly t wice as much from foreign countries as they buy from us, and for every £BO .worth of produce that the United Kingdom buvs from us vve buy barely £SO worth of her goods. Cannot we' do better than that? In the United States prosperity has been built up by a policy of concentration upon industries for the supply of all national requirements. The United States has practically no unemployed because it keeps for its own people, the work which less enlightened countries send abroad. “ Why should we take cotton from the South; send it abroad at 25 cents a pound, have labor worth a. dollar and a half put on it there, and buy tho cloth back for two and a quarter dollars a pound.” Thus, succinctly, docs a writer in an American magazine put the matter, and he adds very sensibly: “Our retail merchant is beginning to see the value of that idea, for if ho buys goods in a foreign country for two and a quarter dollars, the retail merchant abroad gets the trade that results from the purchase, whereas if ho buys his goods iri this country the working man’s wife trades in his store here” There is a lesson in all this for us—‘for omployesr and employees alike, for merchants and traders, for producers, and for every man and woman in the country. By preserving and increasing the great buying power of her own people America’s policy has brought ever-increas-ing success ami prosperity 10 her people. It is not necessary to have cast-iron tariffs to ensure the operation of preference, though they can lie and are most helpful. If by a Shopping Week such as is now about to be held in Gisborne we can cultivate national sentiment, national sentiment will do the rest. People when they go into shops and stores to purchase their domestic requirements will make careful enquiry as to the country of origin of the goods presented to them. They will find almost invariably, wo venture to say, that British goods are best. But sentiment will impel them to give a preference to the British article, with the result, in the great aggregate, that British trade will be fostered. By British trade we mean not only the trade between New Zealand and the Old Country, but trade with Canada, Australia, South Africa, and even the domestic trade of Now Zealand itself. The recent Dunedin Exhibition showed what a wonderful range of manufactures of excellent quality is produced in the Dominion, and sentiment and self-interest both decree that we should on every possible occasion support the industries supplying those manufactures, which give employment to thousands of our people. So also Shopping Week teaches us to support the the industries of our own town and district. They help to create a market for whatever we ourselves have to sell. They contribute to the conveniences and comforts that we enjoy in our own little sphere. “Shop in Gisborne” is a good motto for Shopping Week—a sound motto, and one that everybody in the long run will find profitable to follow. The shops in Gisborne are ereditahlc to the town; the merchants and storekeepers just as enterprising and eager to render good service ns those anywhere else, and there is no need for anybody to go out side the district for any requirement. With the improvement of road facilities Gisborne is becoming more and more firmly established as a shopping cent re for the whole East Coast district, and the special effort now being made to display the. merchandise that is available to the public in the stores of this town should satisfy the public not only that British goods, including those made in New Zealand, are best, but that our merchants and traders are in a position to supply every modern requirement at most reasonable prices. GISBORNE HONORED In a paragraph in our shipping columns it will be noticed that the Commonwealth and , Dominion Line have decided that a new motor vessel now being built for their Now Zealand trade is to be named the “Port Gisborne.” This company lias a fleet of some 2(5 fine refrigerated vessels trading between New Zealand and Australia and the United Kingdom. . These well-known vessels all have the prefix “Pott” to their name, and now a “Port Gisborne’ is shortly to be included in the number. Their two latest vessels in commission are motor vessels, “Port Hobart” and “Port Dunedin,” and the company’s satisfaction with this type i\ indicated by their order to their builders for three further motor vessels. . This company lias been associated with the freighting of frozen meat from this district from the commencement of tho Industry, when the old Tvser Line steamers traded here. Later the Tvser amalgamated with other lines, the new concern being the. Commonwealth and Dominion Lino of to-day. This notification conies at an opportune time ami may be taken as an indication of the Shipping Company’s confidence l hat Gisborne will grow in importance as an overseas port, notwithstanding the contention of parties in Wellington that overseas shipping should be concentrated at a few main New Zea

land ports. It will bo recalled that tlio Tvser Company in 19.13 initiated a two-monthly service of direct shipments to Gisborne from London, at main port rates —a convenience that was greatly appreciated at the time, but the service was suspended on the outbreak of war and has not since been revived, though the company's Port Curtis discharged here last April an inward cargo (mainly comprised .of bitumen), and, of course, their vessels load hero regularly during tho season with outward cargoes of meat, dairy produce, wool. etc. If would be a good thing if wo could anticipate lrom the favorable omen of tho naming of one of the Company’s boats as “Port Gisborne,’’ a recognition of Gisborne’s status as an importing and exporting centre and a return to the order of direct shipments from Home. Such a move would, we feel sure, command the support of th(> importers and greatly popularise the Company ’s service. By the time the “Port Gisborne” is trading here the harbor scheme will have further developed and will, we trust, by then have amply fulfilled the hopes of tho district.