The Wanganui Chronicle "Nulla Dies Sine Linea." MONDAY, JUNE 21, 1909. CALL FOR THE LOCAL LABEL.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume L, Issue 12246, 21 June 1909, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle "Nulla Dies Sine Linea." MONDAY, JUNE 21, 1909. CALL FOR THE LOCAL LABEL.

The many people who thronged the streets on Saturday evening must have been impressed not only by the attractiveness of the window displays in .many of the shop, but also by the visible evidence of the excellence of those local manufactures which were on exhibition. The main purpose of " Industries Week" is, of course, "to demonstrate to the public the fact that the manufactures of the Dominion are of patronage in "preference to their imported competitors. lir its broadest sense the demonstration now in progress is de-' signed to.'foster:-.a greater loyalty to goods (t Made in New Zealand," and it may be.taken for" granted that all-who intelligently examine the. well-displayed products.of the Dominion's varied industries will hot' fail to profit by the lesson: But there is another, and, from a purely local point of view, equally important lesson to be drawn from " Industries Week," and that is the value to the community as a whole of calling for the home label. As an American writer very tersely puts it; calling for the local label "means higher wages and salaries in every line of business and'industry; more industries and more business; more wealth for the conimunity, for yourself and the man in the next ward," which in our.case toay'/be. interpreted to hieaa' more , wealth ) for every man'within the large district or which Wanganui is the natural centre. Failing to call for the local label means the continued needless drain of large stims annually from this district. '" Do^ you realise,'' says the writer from whose article we quote, " that we never will stop the ■outward*, flow of millions .upon millions of dollars each year" until ■you and your neighbour and; the man in the next ward insist upon having articles that are; manufactured, very often, by. your neighbour or the man "in the next ward P" The question is *as pertinent to the people of this district its it is to the citizens of Atlanta or Georgia. No local manufacturer expects : men and women, however patriotic, to buy .home-made good 3 when they are inferior in grade or higher in price to those brought-, from outside the district. But the displays of this week should do much to prove to local consumers that the goods which bear the local label are quite equal in quality and generally lower in price than their imported counterparts. Let us quote again.:— (< When you spend a dollar for 'homemade:, goods you give the merchant a profit; you help to pay ;hisclerical help; you aid in the support of the lighting; and heating corporations nnd their army of local labourers; you give a profit to the manufacturer, and you provide him. the means to broaden his plant, to employ more labourers, shipping clerks, bookkeepers; you add to the population of the city, additions of the most substantial nature; you create additional avenues of employment, better paid employment for yourself and your children and the man. in the next ward and his children. These men and those to whom they give employment are all your fellow citizens. Their prosperity, and their development mean your prosperity and your development— the development and the prosperity of the community. Are you going to help on that.work by..-calling.for tho local label, and seeing that you get it?/' 1 -We offer -,np .apology, for putting the sairie questiGn to the people of Wanganui and the surrounding district. We, want them to realise the wisdom of co-operating to. keep many hundreds of pounds;-in.,the district each yeary to expand the activities and the prosperity of every line of business and every farmer and every business man and every professional jnan and every 'worker in.the to wri and district. We want, them to help themselves by helping the whole community. We want them to get the habit of calling for the ijjocal label, or, in other words, of giving their preference to locally manufactured goods.