The Daily News FRIDAY, JULY 20. LOCAL PATRIOTISM.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 60, 26 July 1907, Page 2

The Daily News FRIDAY, JULY 20. LOCAL PATRIOTISM.

There is a heap of eiissedness in human nature. The other fellow's belongings Beeni better than one's own. As the gentleman in "Dorothy" says: "Ike old wou.d l)e young and the young old, the lean only long to grow fatter: the wealthy want health and the' healthy want gold (a change to the worse for the latter). The single would wed, but the married contrive to consider the fetters a curse; and half the world sighs for the other half's wives, with a risk of change for the worse. So here's Co the man who is pleased with his lot, etc." Distant fields are greenest, and the Taranaki man who learns that land is being given away in Queensland, sighs for acres of prickly pear and Datlmrst burr and swarms of locusts and 121 degrees in the water-bag. Human discontent is necessary to human advancement. • If represents human ambition. Never a Sunday goes by but what a woman does not see in church the hat she would like better thau her own. Never doe* a man ride along a road but what he fair ™* f" n U '' R l |0 «c '"'lter than the one he rides. Never does a farmer pass a neighor's crop but what he envies it He's bound to think that his neighbor's potato crop goes a bag more to the acre than his own, and it is the spur that drives him to'thc ambition to do better next season. On the principle that what 13 distant is better than what is under one's nose, a proportion of Taranaki people hearken to the advice of thft circulars that flood the towns (and indeed, the whole province) from outside sources It is, we suppose, legitimate enough for Auckland drapers or ■luckand furniture people or Auckland storekeepers to send their advertisements and price-lists and inducements to buy to Taranaki. The amazing thing to iis is that Taranaki people in general, but New Plymouth people in particular, overlook the claims of the local trader and" listen to the circulars of the outsider. There is, of course, no sentiment in business. The buyer wants fo buv in the cheapest market and the selle'r is always looking for the biggest price. Outside firms who condescend to do business in New Plymouth desire to sell in the dearest market, and, as a matter of fact, they And that distance lends such enchantment to the view of the New Plymouth people that ho or she (it is mostly sho) frequently pays much more for flie goods he or she buys from the stranger than the stranger gets in his own district. The distant tradesman has the advantage that the buyer cannot haggle over the price. The buyer sends his cheque and the goods arrive. The transaction is completed. While the seller is at it he may as well stick on a few per cent. The local tradesman knows the prices ruling in the big centres, and he adjusts his tariff to prevent the possibility of being undersold by outside firms. Although he is in most cases able to sell at as cheap a rate to his local customers as the outside trader, there still seems to be some peculiar fascination to many people In spending their money elsewhere. This is disloyal. Also it is not economical. Take an instance that has just come under our notice. One local lady had thirty pounds to spend. Ii had probably been earned locally. If ft could not have been spent to good advantage in this town, there would have been an excuse to go to a cheaper market if one could be found. Goods sold In New Plymouth at 4s ltd per yard were imported from Auckland at 7s 6d. Articles purchaseable not far from the lady's door for Is Od cost 2s fld as delivered from Auckland. The avidity with which local people reach out for bargains, is only equalled by the avidity with which outside firms get rid of stock perhaps not saleable in their own district, for a price much in advance of its worth. The general price for all commodities sold In New Plymouth is generally speaking lower here than arc the prices charged to the citizen in any of the chief towns. The large rents charged in the chief centres appear to necessitate the high prices. If the Auckland citizen has to pay to an Auckland firm a higher price for an article than the New Plymouth person pays to a New Plymouth trademan, how can the Auckland tradesman undersell the New Plymouth man and pay to flood the place with circulars, meet freightage, package and other charges? He simply can't do if, and he simply doesn't. He relies on the distant fields policy. If local people studied Die matter they _ would see that it is not only disloyal fo send their money away, hut that it also doesn't pay. ' We should be the last to urge anybody to pay a high price for goods merely because the man who sold the high-priced goods was a townsman, but where it can be absolutely proved that sending monfy out of the town is a losing investment surely no other argument is needed to convince people that spending money locally-earn-ed with local tradespeople is the wiser plan. And, anyhow, the local tradesmen haven't done anything to warrant the contempt for disloyalty of the house father or mother. Taken generally, he is an enterprising man who knows what is going on in the commercial world and arranges his business accordingly. If he were slothful, unbusinesslike, discourteous or avaricious one might understand some people boycotting him in favor of the outsider. But seeing that he is known and has proved his bona fides, that his business is under the critical view of local people and that the outsiders' methods cannot be examined, it appears to us that he is entirely worthy of the support that is in many cases gnren to the firm that he has no stake fif the district.