WAIRARAPA-WELLINGTON TRADE

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 46, Issue 14127, 26 May 1920, Page 4

WAIRARAPA-WELLINGTON TRADE

A desperate effort is being made by the Wellington Evening Post to defend the Wellington merchants against the accusation that they are lacking in enterprise and are allowing Auckland merchants to. obtain a strong trade footing instjthe Wairarapa. The poor old Pip Van Winkle newspaper in Wellington has been sleeping so long on the rail that it does not know what has been happening at its back door during the past ten or fifteen years. Masterton is flooded every year with Auckland trade circulars and books of prices for everything from a potato to a motor car. Thousands of pounds go out of Masterton alone every year to Auckland for the purchase of goods which could just as easily and as cheaply be obtained from Wellington, had not the merchants of the Empire City been asleep for years like their evening newspaper. Masterton receives a “square deal” from Auckland firms, and it will take a very long and a very strong effort on the part of Wellington merchants to pull that trade from Auckland. If Wellington business men —probably the sleepiest and most out-of-date in the Dominion —had agitated years ago for an improved railway service between Wellington and Wairarapa, and had carried on a trade propaganda like the Auckland merchants, then the trade that goes north to-day would have been passing through the Wellington channels. It is very doubtful now -whether Wellington will be able to rob Auckland of that trade, unless, of course, they are prepared to give cheaper goods of the same quality as the Auckland merchandise.