ANOTHER REMINDER.

Southland Times, Issue 19255, 20 June 1921, Page 4

ANOTHER REMINDER.

Southland has received another advertisement and New Zealanders have been again reminded of their failure to appreciate the products of their own country. At the same time it is a bit disheartening to find that although the good qualities of Southland’s silver beech ere admitted, it is the Australians rather than our own people who are making most use of the timber. It is a remarkable and a disgraceful fact that the New Zealand manufacturer has to toil against an unjustifiable prejudice in favour of the imported article. Economists may question the value of protective tariffs in the long run, but no one will suggest for a moment that the use of home made articles in preference to importations is bad business. A prejudice in favour of the things produced and manufactured by our own people is the best possible form of protection. As Mr Frostick says, New Zealand for the New Zealanders is not a selfish policy, and he might have added that any policy short of that is essentially shortsighted. The qualities of Southland’s silver beech have been known in this part of the dominion for a long time but it is only

in recent years that other provinces have credited this end of New Zealand with much more than a reputation for wet weather and wind. Southlanders know that our share of the vagaries of the climate is little, if any, greater than that of districts further north, but they are quite justified in complaining about the length of time it has taken northerners to realise the fact. On every hand Southlanders can see the need for vigorous advertising. Every means possible of bringing this rich province before the attention of the dominion should be greedily -used. The silver beech is only one of the valuable products we can boast about, but our trouble is that we say too little about tthem. ,