EMPIRE TRADE WEEK

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LII, Issue 17155, 4 October 1926, Page 2

EMPIRE TRADE WEEK

ITS TRUE OBJECTIVE. ADVERTISING BRITISH QUALITY. To-day saw the opening of the British Trade Week in Gisborne. Whilst there has been no apparent rush to buy the products of Which a special show is being made in the shops, public interest has been manifest in the display and verv favorable comment thereon has been made. It was hardly anticipated that there would be a great increase on the value of trading, and few of those traders who swung m behind the movement can have expected to achieve a record turnover of stock. The primary object of the Empire Shopping Week is not to sell-more goods in a given time, but to demonstrate how far the householder's needs can be tilled from sources within the Empire, and the quality represented in British goods as against those of foreign origin. What must be driven liome is that British pre-eminence in commerce, and all that goes hand in hand with that pre-eminence, is seriously endangered. Only a continued effort can remove the danger, -by the absorption of British products in preference to those of other Countries. Business is business, and the appeal to the public sentiment is no stronger than that to the public intellect. This shopping week must- show that Empire products are worth buying on the score of quality and workmanship, and that they will give better service for the money than foreign goodsi Other/wise, no stiring of the old.enthussiasm' can help it to success.