ORDERS WANTED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 215, 10 September 1940, Page 4

ORDERS WANTED.

BRITISH FACTORIES. CABLES TO NEW ZEALAND. "Every overseas order available is necessary for us to keep up our export quota and all orders you can possibly send are important." "Need all business you can send. Deliveries normal, ten or twelve weeks." These are the texts of two cablegrams from competing crockery and earthenware manufacturers of Stoke-on-Trent, received this morning by Mr. A. L. Byrne, New Zealand representative of a numiber of such manufacturers in England. They indicate the value placed on the export section of their businesses. "Most of the table crockery that is sold in New Zealand comes from Stoke-on-Trent," said Mr. Byrne, in discussing the import restrictions to-day. "The , New Zealand warehouses with which I do business have all used up their licenses and are awaiting the Government's decision in respect to the fifth period. They cannot send orders forward because they do not know what they will be allowed. Some may find that they are not permitted any -crockery importations—who can say?" Mr. Byrne explained that that so far only 50 per cent of table crockery orders compared with the 1938 imports had 'been allowed, while the importation of va-?es, rosebowls and other varieties of an ornamental character were not permitted. He had heard of numbers of instances where crockery was required and unobtainable. The manufacturers in England had been "cut" by one-third for the Home market and with overseas restrictions as well it was going hard with them. They desired to make up as far as possible by export for the onethird surplus of products formerly sold in Great Britain and also to fill overseas orders to the maximum in order to keep their factories running. In a letter received by Mr. Byrne from a British manufacturer the following statement was made: "It is essential that we get every penny-worth of trad? possible from the overseas markets so that we can keep our factories functioning. As you are aware, this is of vital importance to you as well as to ourselves." The view was expressed by Mr. Byrne that the Government should help as far as possible by allowing reasonable imports, especially in respect to manufacturers who had been restricted as far as their local markets were concerned.