The Christchurch Star PUBLISHED BY New Zealand Newspapers Ltd. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 18, 1934. THE ADVERTISER'S ART.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20283, 18 April 1934, Page 6

The Christchurch Star PUBLISHED BY New Zealand Newspapers Ltd. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 18, 1934. THE ADVERTISER'S ART.

WHILE New Zealand dairy farmers are cudgelling their brains over the butter problem, they may be interested to leijrn that the manufacturers of margarine are enterprising enough to take halfpage advertisements in the leading London newspapers, through which one will look in vain for an advertisement of butter. In a London daily of February 28 may be noted a most appetising half-page picture of a pile of fresh fruit and vegetables—celery, sliced cucumber, glossy tomatoes, grapes, crisp lettuce, the bulging end of a ripe pear —and these, we are told, all “ have it.” And what they have is claimed also for margarine at cightpence a pound—freshness. If your children could play in the sunshine every day, if you yourself could sun-bathe in bright sunshine in winter as well as summer, you would never need to make sure that your food gave you the precious sunshine vitamins. But all through the winter in Great Britain you must get sunshine vitamins from your food. S gives them to you. S is one of the few foods eaten at every meal that contains the sunshine vitamins. Now this is excellent advertising, whatever one may think of margarine, but it only emphasises the tremendous opportunity that exists for butter, with virtues to which margarine cannot hold a candle. In an even greater degree it emphasises the value of advertising. WHAT ENGLAND EATS. T> UTTER is growing steadily in favour in England at the expense of margarine, but that is no reason why it should not be pushed more vigorously. Britain’s industrial development implies dependence upon outside supply for a large proportion of its foodstuffs. Efforts have been made by restrictions on imports and other expedients to encourage a greater home consumption of agricultural products, but in spite of these measures the volume of retained imports of food, drink and tobacco last year was only 2 per cent less than in 1932, and actually exceeded the 1930 figure by 2 per cent. Only in the case of living animals for food were imports in this group smaller in 1933 than in 1932 or 1930, and this decrease was due mainly to the restriction on arrivals from the Irish Free State. This sustained consumption of foodstuffs is particularly gratifying when we look at butter, and the following table showing the quantities, in pounds, per head of population of certain retained imports of foodstuffs since 1913 is instructive:

Care must be exercised in drawing a deduction from these statistics owing to possible changes in the proportion of home production to imported foodstuffs consumed, but they suggest that in spite of the depression the consumption of necessaries in 1932 was well maintained. The figures for butter, indeed, are a clear indication that intelligent advertising and marketing by New Zealand ought to more than arrest any decline in the quantity demanded by Britain. mPLOMACY CALLED FOR. 'TT'HE Canterbury Rugby Union need not apologise for throwing the searchlight upon the methods by which the manager of the. next All Black team to Britain is to be appointed, for this appointment involves the credit and good standing of New Zealand in a degree that very few Rugby administrators have realised in the past. Recent events in the cricket world, not to mention the last tour of the All Blacks, strongly emphasise the need for something more than a mere expert in Rugby at the head of a touring team. The manager ought to be a gentleman who is able to take his place in any company, with a very full appreciation of the Imperial significance of events that have to undergo the amplification and often distortion of the sporting arena.

1913 1924 1929 1931 1932 Butter . . . 9.90 12.72 15.38 18.74 19.48 Margarine . 3.71 3.28 2.32 1.68 0.22 Cheese . . . 5.48 7.09 7.26 6.94 7.19 Beef . .1 . . . 21.96 30 39 28.11 28.47 27.03 Mutton and Lamb . . . 13.05 12.82 13.99 17.53 17.02 Pork . . . . . 1.21 3.14 1.81 2119 1.89