HOW NOT TO ADVERTISE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 11, 29 August 1911, Page 2

HOW NOT TO ADVERTISE.

If an Australian writing in the “Ago” is to 1)0 believed, Australia snlfoved greatly by the Commonwealth Government's refusal to make a display at the Festival of Empire at the Crystal Palace. The organising of the Australian exhibit was left to outs tiers. and, according to his statement, the result lias been deplorable, .linden array behind a narrow nassag:: ns a sign “Australia,” direc.iog attention to half a dozen tableaux fringed w;lh black cloth. “Here I saw a representation 0.l Ihirke and \\ illis dying in the ‘Australian desert’ with the skeleton of a pack camel tilling in the foreground. A lavish use of yellow ochre brought home to the minds of three young men—certainly not city dwellers—who stood near me, the awful intensity of the Australian sun. ‘Burn up anything,’ one of them remarked as they moved away.” What a splendid attraction to men thinking of emigrating and not sure what dominion they will go to! One wonden: when this extraordinarily foolish policy of parading the tragedy ol Australia instead of its bright side—this harping on drought, and hush fires, and heat, and isolation—will bo abandoned. Other attractive tableaux represented Governor Phillip and some convicts, and Captain Cook surrounded by salaaming savages, and as the Australian tinned to go, he found himself face to face with Ned Kelly! There was not a bit of wheat or an apple to be seen in tiie “court.” But the Governments themselves do not always do much better. The writer says that during - the Coronation period, when' hundreds of visitors daily entered the building, tot ton apples were on view in the show cases at the Victorian agency in London, and weevils wore to bo seen in 'thick clusters on the outside of bags of flour. The creases of the’ cloth samples were white with dust, which also lay thick on dried apricots and tinned meats exposed on the shelves. And while professing to want farm workers, the Commonwealth authorities have issued a poster for distribution in England containing views of the principal streets of Australian capitals. Evidently the advertising of Australia in England is still far from what it should be.