FOREIGN HARDWIRE IN NEW ZEALAND

Southland Times, Issue 17304, 28 March 1913, Page 3

FOREIGN HARDWIRE IN NEW ZEALAND

BRITISH V. AMERICAN GOODS. AN INSTRUCTIVE DISPLAY. (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON. February 14. Samples of hardware goods of foreign manufacture which have been successful in Colonial markets in active competition with similar goods of British origin, collected by H. M. Trade Commissioner in New Zealand, have been displayed for Inspection at the Cutlers’ Hall in Sheffield this week. The collection comprises braces and bits, breast drills, augers, saws, mitre boxes, hatchets, and axes, stocks, and dies, lawn-mowers, garden tools, planes, tailors’ and barbers’ scissors, hammers, draw knives, wrenches, smiths’ tongs, meat choppers, locks, bolts, hinges, castors, food choppers, wringers, spoons, forks, shelf brackets, kettles, coffee pots, and lamps, all of United States manufacture. German samples, of which there are fewer, comprise mincers, bag hooks, pincers, forge tools, pit saw sets, screw-drivers, pliers, calipers, planes, compasses, gimlets, and punches. The Commissioner’s report states tha! the American axe is machine made, botl head and haft, and that the handle i set in by machinery, whereby accuracy

of balance Is attained. This quality is said to account also for tho popularity of the American hammers, choppers, and hatchets, and to some extent of shovels. With regard to locks, the Commissioner says that the Yale lock has been In almost universal use in spite of the fact, which was recently demonstrated to him, that a child could learn to pick it with a thin blade of a pocket knife. British substitutes of good quality are available, but they have to combat “a strong prejudice due to the length of time during which the field had been left undisputed to the United States”. British makes of hay-forks are, the Commissioner says, still unchallenged where weight and strength are required, but the light forks from America have no rival at present and are sold at a remarkably low price. British lawnmowers are used for cricket grounds, tennis lawn, bowling greens, and golf courses, but the largest sale is to the cottagers, and with this class of purchaser the cheap American machine enjoys a virtual monopoly. The American makes of farriers’ tools are, the Commissioner tells us, so well known in the Dominion that it seems impossible to displace them without an organised canvass of the forges. British firms cannot, he adds, expect retailers to take action in tills direction when the latter have a steady demand for established wares, and makers must realise that if they want to get into the market they must either present overwhelming inducements to retailers to push their goods, or go beyond them and create a demand among users. Another portion of the same collection of samples is on show in Birmingham, and according to the “Ironmonger” njn®tenths of the articles there exitiblted could be purchased from British manufacturers for less money than is charged by the foreign producers, and, generally speaking, the British made goods would be of better quality. After dealing in detail with the Items shown, the “Ironmonger” sums up the situation thus; “Manufacturers (English) have not much to learn from the samples shown, except this —and ,It is important—Their goods are not so wellknown as they might be". In other words, whilst the Americans and Germans have been assiduously creating a demand for their goods in New Zealand, our manufacturers in the same line of business have been content to fulfil orders for their goods as might come along. Possibly the Commissioner’s report coupled with these exhibitions in the two great hardware centres may induce our manufacturers to make a special study of New Zealand’s requirements in the hardware line. Judging from the "Ironmonger’s” remarks concerning the foreign exhibits, British manufacturers ought to bo able to compete successfully with their German and American both in the matter of price and qualm, if they would put their backs into a little steadv “spadework” and pay reasonable attention to what they may deem the fad and fancies of potential customers All other things being fairly equal, the New Zealand “preference for British ~oods” to which the Commissioner refers in his memorandum, would soon make itself apparent to the advantage of the British manufacturer.