THE BOARD OF TRADE COMMISSIONER.

Press, Volume L, Issue 14889, 31 January 1914, Page 7

THE BOARD OF TRADE COMMISSIONER.

INTERVIEW WITH MR WICKHAM. (.SI'KCIAL TO "THE TRESS.") WELLINGTON, January 30. Mi- W. G. Wickham. the British Board of Trade Commissioner for New Zealand, left to-day, en route for England, and anticipates being absent from the Dominion for six or seven months. This trip is purely a business ono as it is a set policy of the Board that its representative should be.kept up to date in what is taking place in trade circles at Home, and also in personal touch with those manufacturers who .produce goods required in-the oversea Dominions. Mr Wioiiham has been iri New Zealand for '. two years, and holds the opinion that tho establishment of a Commissioner here ha 3 been beneficial to British trade. Mr Wickham is, however, quite frank in stating that the portion is hardly so satisfactory aa Ji_ wbtiia ; :like Ityto he.y Heissy&, that he has found that many business people whom ho is perfectly sure that he (as representative of the Boafd) could assist, have been impervious, to his advances, even though his mission is to give, - not to receive. Somo or them, he states, cannot conceive that there should be such an institution in existence—one that is almost in daily touch with every big manufacturer in the Oid Country. He has known a ! case where a New Zealand firm ad- j vertised for agencies which had prac- ; ticallv been offered them through the | agency of his Board's circulars. When ho wrote reminding tho firm of that , fact, the latter did not even trouble to j reply. "Of course," Mr Wickham ' added, "the keen man of business has i taken full advantage of the Board's i activities but there are so many l people in business in New Zealand who are not keen, and will not pay attention to what is directly in their individual interest, • and also in tlto interest of British trade generally." _ There were cases, too, said Mr Wickham, where foreign firms had got in early and established their goods as the standard articles-goods which were made better nnd just as cheaply in England. Such prejudices were difficult to remove. The firms might be doing well enough with the foreign article, and perhaps there was no reason why they should change, but in the interest of British trade—the life-blood of a nation—they ffiight at least listen to the representations regnrdingthe British-made article. Mr Wickham could not give, offhand, figures respecting the respective increases and decreases in the importation of British and foreign mannfac- ' turod goods. The statistics of the post, he said, had hardly been worth the paper which they wero printed on, as they were only based on the country which they were invoiced from. "That," he added, "is being rectified now—since January Ist of this year—as goods have now to bo labelled with the name of the country of origin. That has been laid down on the initiath'o of tho Minister for Customs by regulations gazetted some timo ago. In the past the figures respecting goods im■Dorted from Australia have been misleading in many cases. Japanese goods havo been re-invoiced from Australia, and it is the same with German. French, and American manufacturers." Finally Mr Wickham drew attention to a circular issued by the Commercial Department of the Royal Colonial Institute, which proposes to undertake tho same work as the British Board of Trade is doing. He confesses that he can scarcely understand the motive for such a move, as the Institute proposes to get the same information hero and elsewhere for the same British manufacturers that is being posted by the Board of Trade.