STIMULATING OUR MARKETS.

Taranaki Daily News, 26 November 1926, Page 6

STIMULATING OUR MARKETS.

Whatever opinion may be held as to the true functions of the various boards which control the meat, dairy produce, fruit, and honey exports from the Dominion, it will be generally accepted that in certain directions they can do a good deal in stimulating the industries concerned. In regard to standardisation of quality, and in raising that standard, much good work has already been accomplished, though there is still plenty of scope. In matters of shipping and insurance also, the collective bargaining for the whole of an industry has probably been of benefit to it, despite individual cases of hardship. Above all, in the work, of bringing before the British public the excellent quality of our products there is work which the control boards ean and ought to do well. The day has long since passed when merely to have .a good article for sale was to ensure selling it. New Zealand’s greatest competitor in dairy produce, Denmark, spent many thousands of pounds, in diverse ways, in introducing the Danish butter to the English housewife. So in regard to other products, the value of organised and continuous publicity is well recognised by the Dominion’s competitors. It is satisfactory, therefore, to note from a message which was published yesterday, that the board’s controlling our products are not losing sight of the value of publicity. Apparently they have approached the High Commissioner for assistance in this matter. It is well known that hitherto the publicity branch of his office has been starved of both men and money, the Government evidently failing to appreciate the value of this essential link in marketing, emigration, etc., but the very excellent work done by the attenuated London staff should have demonstrated to Mr. Coates that publicity rightly directed and efficiently carried out is a very profitable investment. With prices of our products dropping the need for a publicity campaign is more than ever evident. With the knowledge that the goods the Dominion can supply are of the best quality, such a campaign can be entered upon with the assurance that if a demand is created New Zealand can undoubtedly "deliver the goods.”