' Irish ' Linen from Japan

New Zealand Tablet, Volume 11, Issue 10, 11 March 1909, Page 369

' Irish ' Linen from Japan

Our friends and 'allies' in the land of the Mikado have never been remarkable for over-strict notions in the matter of commercial morality, and their little weakness for pirating well-known trade-marks and palming off their own inferior productions under the names of the most reputable and popular manufacturers of other countries has been long known and often protested against. ' Pears' Soap,' ' Coalman's Mustard,' even ' Holloway's Pills,' are now made in. Japan and palmed off by these slim commercialists under the honored names that are familiar to the whole civilised world. The latest effort in this direction is an attempt to c commandeer ' the Irish linen market by ways that are dark and tricks that are vain. Says, the London Draper's Becord in a recent issue : ' One of the present sensations of the trade is due to the importation of "Irish" linen goods from' the land of the wily Jap. The detail and elaboration of the work are alike astonishing. - The prices aTe even more so.' This is the day of wooden nutmegs and sanded sugar, but ' Irish ' linen from Japan just about touches the limit. If the Government cannot protect its people from being flooded with bogus goods and secure to its workers the just fruits of tKeir skill, one is left to wonder what the Government exists for at all.