LOCAL INDUSTRIES WEEK.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 13726, 15 August 1908, Page 3

LOCAL INDUSTRIES WEEK.

"MADE IN NEW ZEALAND."

SCHOOL CIJILDREN/S ESSAYS.

The following are the winners of the town schools essay competition promoted by the Chamber of Commerce i.<> connection with. Local Industries Week together with their essays: — SENIORS. * FIRST PRIZE: CLAUDE JURY, 14 years 9. months, West End School : As some of the larger towns of New Zealand have held an industrial week with considerable .success, it was decided by the Employers' Association of New Plymouth to hold such a week here. The time chosen for the display was the week of the Taranaki-Bntibh football match. During the week the Employers 7 Association had the ! necessary . arrangements mad<? for the display, and about half the business premises of the town were elaborately decorated wifch colo-maf-uiade goods. As wool is the staple product of the Dominion, many of the drapers were exhibiting beautiful rugs and blankets bearing the brand of the Roslyn, Kaiapoi, and Petone mills. When one sees the beautiful articles manufactured at these mills he is led to ask why the wool should be sent to Halifax to be made into garments when such beautiful material can be manufactured in the Dominion. . . The cabinetmakers, are showing in their windows planks of kauri, nmu, and Awa rewa. The kauri tree once covered a very large portion of tiio Aui&land district, but, unhappily, ovihgfto the great demand that nas been on |he market for this special variety of wood, the tree is fast vanishing. The rewa rewa is chiefly used for, cabi-net-jnaking, and, when properly oiled and polished, it presents^ very beautiful appearance. v , In the window of Mr Whitaker's shop was to be seen the wheat as it really is and the thirteen different processes that it must go through before it is ready for human consumption. Our own/little flour mill at Sentry Hill is very small compared with the nulls Arf larger towns, but nevertheless it is capable, of turning oiit flour which, for excellent quality, is not to be excelled in the colony. , The province of Taranaki is admirably adapted for dairy farming, and. as tfte grass is plentiful, the farms arc small and close together. The cows are milked, and the surplus milk is taken to the nearest factory, there to be ma<|e into butter and cheese. The butter is sent to the freezing works at Moturoa, frozen, packed in boxes and sent home to England. When the cattle become too old for dairying, or are killed for beef, their hides are used for the manufacture of boots, shoes, harness, and travelling bags, all of which for durability and finish cannot be excelled by imported ones.- • We, as people -of New Zealand, may promote the prosperity of the Domimor by using locally made goods instead of imported ones, and in order to compel us to do so, Government have placed a duty on almost all goods entering the Dominion, so that they cannot be sold at a cheaper price than locally goods. KQUAL SECOND : ALICE COCKER, 13 years 1 month, West End School 1 : — Some time ago the Chamber of Commerce and Employers' Association in, New- Plymouth deoided, upon the una-. inimous 'request of the tradespeople, to follow the example set by the larger towns in making a display of/colonialmanufactured goods. The result was that during last week most of the windows of the town were displaying their different wares, which were manufactured in the Dominion; the most important of these, however, being one of ' the products of sheepfarming — namely y wooL The display of woollens wag varied, oxtensive, and thoroughly^' representative of New Zealand grown and manufactured goods. Kaiapoi, Petone, Roslyn, and Mosgiel rugs, blankets, underclothing, hoisery, otc, rival all those imported from abroad. . Ono of our local industries is flourmilling, and, as patriotism requires us i.o support our own province, we should give our preference to the flour made at Little's mill at Sentry Hill, rather •Jinn that made in other provinces. A splendid display in this line was to b<> seen in one of the windows of JL Whitaker's shop ; the thirteen different processes in the making of flour, from tlv corn to the article, wore there filiown to every advantage. In the opposite window was shown a tasteful » rray of biscuits made by Messrs Aulsebrook and Co., Christchuroh. There was every variety of; biscuit, from tlje plain to the daintiest wafer. - The staple 'industry of Taranaki is dairy-farming, while its products — buitejv> cheese, and frozen meat — are exported on a large scale to England, where New Zealand (largely Taranaki) butter compares favourably with that of the Danish and other makes. A very important indnstry in New Zealand — namely, sawmilling and tim-ber-felling — employs nearly ten thousand work-peQple, who. if the home industry is. not supported, will be thrown out of employment. Therefore it is the duty of every citizen, if he be a patriotic one to support, this great industry by purchasing furniture made of New Zealand woods, rather than those which are imported, which are often of inferior quality. . As New Zealand^ is in the south.temperate zone> her climate is admirably adapted to the production of choice fruits, the surplus ones of which are canned in large quantities. The canning of frnits employs many people hi the factories of Nelson, Auckland, Hastings, and Wellington. In the window of C. Carter some of the products of these factorjps were displayed to every advantage. One of the necessities for manufacture is coal, and, as New Zealand has coal and jronsand, which may in later times be turned to some use, she ou'prht in future ages to rank high among the nations as a manufacturing country. The display of New Zealand-mann-faotured goods last week must have I served to show to the observant that manufacturers in the Dominion can turn out articles of great variety which for finish and quality can more then hold their own against imported goods.

EQUAL SECOND : DOROTHY WHIT ' ' AKEB, Id years, Fitzroy School : — The display of goods made in New Zealand qy the shopkeepers of Nov Plymouth was a very interesting ami instructive one and proved to all that articles of a very superior quality can be made in the Dominion. It is impossible to describe m detmj the many interesting exhibits, for thero were rugs, shawls, blankets, nannol* and »H sorts of woollen goods from the* jVt ,rv» , Mos^M, K^if»P°T, ' n-ttd- Bomy? . factories ; all kinds of choice biscuits and confectioneries from makers wlwo names are ' housbhold words in our homes, besides the numerous lollies made by the New Plymouth confection-

ers* many articles of to workmen and farmers from the hardwaremen; all kinds of goods for consumption from the grocers, and a good exhibit of flour with the processes it goes through from the' whole wheat to the finished article. Then we get boots and shoes from the Egmont Boot Co., and other well known New Zealand firms; timber for making furniture; medicine for curing colds ; umbrellas for keeping out the rain, besides many other articles of interest. _ Perhaps the most instructive was the visit paid to the foundry, where we saw the machinery and noticed how everything was made. Then we visited the Sash and Door Factory, where all the windows, doors, and other furnishings for our homes were being made. Theh we saw how the newspapers were printed, and the peculiar machines for setting the type, and in Mr Avery's and Mr Hooker's how various. kinds of printing and book-binding* and lithographing were done. The idea in the minds of the committee who were instrumental in advocating the holiday for industry week should be very helpful and perhaps give us an idea as to which business we should like to loam when we have finished our schooling.