The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 1916. PATRIOTISM IN TRADE.

Southland Times, Issue 17665, 24 February 1916, Page 4

The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 1916. PATRIOTISM IN TRADE.

Wellington is running a little exhibition just now which directs attention to the important principle of patriotism in trade. In the ten years immediately preceding the war Germany’s trade with us grew steadily. The German manufacturer was keen to make his way in new markets. His emissaries were extremely busy, and German goods and German methods were winning success. The war has changed our feeling in these matters, and we now look back without any pleasure whatever to the steadily increasing value of our imports from Germany. In the seven months immediately preceding the war we bought from Germany motor tyres, covers and tubes to the value of £69,314, fancy goods and toys to the value of £55,000, basic slag to the value of £48,000, superphosphates to the value of £65,384, pianos to the value of £34,704, cream of tartar to the value of £21,714, seeds, grass and clover to ' the value of £21,919, hardware, hollowware and ironmongery to the value of £24,932, drapery to the value of £23,423, hosiery to the value of £24,282, apparel, textiles and manufactured fibres to the value of £72,944, and buttons, tapes, wadding, pins and needles to the value of £41,137. These are only some of the items; the list could be extended to fill a column. We still require all these fancy good and manures and seeds .and pianos and manufactured fabrics, but we do not want to buy them from Germany. We wish, as far as possible, to avoid buying anything made in Germany simply because it is German, and we also want to cut off our trade with Germany in order not to assist the German manufacturers any more than we can help. While we do not want to help Germany we want to help our own country, and it is our desire to substitute British goods for foreign goods, and particularly for enemy goods, wherever possible. The little exhibition got up in Wellington is an exhibition of Britsh manufactures. It is intended to show how far British goods are available to take the place

of those formerly bought in Germany. If the German manufacturer was keen before the war he will be keener after the war. The German flag having been swept from the seas, Germany has lost her foreign trade. In so far as German industries are still in operation the surplus of manufactures over and above local requirements is accumulating in Germany, and it is believed that after the conclusion of peace Germany will attempt to regain her foreign trade by flooding the markets of the world with these accumulated goods at prices fixed without regard to profit. We must be on our guard against cheap German stuff. After the war the German agent may offer his pianos, glass bottles and toys at prices with which the British manufacturer cannot possibly compete. The British manufacturer must have preference or we shall help the Germans to reestablish their industries and regain the position in which, just before the war, they threatened the commercial supremacy of Britain. No doubt the campaign against German goods will be assisted by tariffs, but the patriotic maxim, “British goods for British consumers,” is a better defence against an aggressive German trade campaign than a tariff. Such exhibitions as that now being held in Wellington are very timely object lessons.