ASHBURTON'S PROGRESSIVE BUSINESSES.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18408, 15 June 1925, Page 4

ASHBURTON'S PROGRESSIVE BUSINESSES.

Asburton induster

Support Local Industry by Shopping in Your Own Town j

POSSIBILITIES OF EXPANSION.

With considerable appropriateness the week upon which the people of Ashburton are starting to-day might be called AsHburton's Winter Carnival. To those two long-established and deservedly popular fixtures, the Winter Show and the trotting races, there has been added this .year Ashburton's Shopping and Local Industries Week and upon the success with which the new venture is received will depend largely whether it becomes an annual fixture vying in popularity with the two other attractions and adding to the importance and progress of the town. At the time of writing all the indications point to the new feature proving highly successful, not only in attracting the business of the outlying districts to the chief town of the county, but in ■ conveying, in a pleasing and easily apprehended manner, a great deal of highly interesting information regarding the resources at the command of Ashburton 's business firms, and 'the manner in which local industries havo progressed and the high- standard of excellence lo which they havo attained. , EMPHASISING THE OBVIOUS? Now, it is very easy to argue that ! this emphasis on the up-to-date, character of Ashburton's business places, and this direction of attention to the high quality of the products of local industries is somewhat superfluous. Everybody knows all about these things; they sec tho goods displayed in the shops, • and they have heard all about" local industries. ', But the argument is only superficially correct, and at the conclusion of Shopping' and Local Industries Week those who advance that view will bo the readiest to admit that it was; in a largo measure, fallacious; for, in tho case- of the majority of us, there are few things that wo know least about than the obvious things—the "familiar unknown" as they havo been termed. Ono o'bjoct of' Shopping and Local Industries Week is to invest these obvious things with an appeaTance of novelty, and, by special displays, to bring into prominence many factors that tho casual observer either misses or overlooks. Business people in the larger centres are well aware from their experience of similar direct and effective appeals to the interest and attention of the public that they are not only highly educative but produce results by increasing the volume of business. ASHBURTON AS A BUSINESS CENTRE. The stability of business in Ashburton hardly needs stressing.. Not only residents, but outsiders who have actual experience and knowledge of the town, agree that it is, from a business point of view, one of the soundest towns in Canterbury and, in that respect, equal ''■ to any town in the Dominion of similar size. But there is room for the expansion oi. the business activities of the town. Compared with the progress made by the country, the town of Ashburton has not advanced in proportion, and it is submitted, with considerable show of reason, that if the residents of the country districts did more shopping in the■ principal town,of the county the disproportion referred to would be greatly reduced if it did not entirely disappear. And it is further submitted by the townspeople that-there is no real reason why the country people, or for that matter why any of the townspeople, should shop far afield. If doubts exist on that point it is confidently believed that when the incredulous inspect the displays being made during Shopping and Local Industries/Week their, doubts will be removed completely. Ashburton business men hold, and hold strongly - the view that just as trade within the • • Empire is highly desirable from every point of view, so is trade within the county. The farmer finds in many of the industries of the town of Ashburton a market for his productions, and it is an unchallenged belief that the local market ia the farmer's best and most profitable market. INTERLOCKING OP COUNJRY AND TOWN. Let us glance, for a minute or two, at the interdependence and interlocking of the interests of the Ashburton farmer and the Ashburton business man. The ' farmer produces wool; the woollen mills of the town buy his product and manufacture it into many articles of everyday use and consumption; and the retailer brings the consumer in touch with both. If the farmer specialises in lambraising, the freezing works buy his product and transform it into a commodity for export as well as for local sumption. Or the farmer raises wheat and oats and the mills of the town take his products, manufacture them into flour and oatmeal, and pass them on to the baker and the grocer, and so in the form of the "staff of life" and of the morning porridge, to the tables of the consumer. In like manner the dairy farmer's products from his herds is manufactured into those prime necessities, butter and cheese. From all this, and from similar instances that might be cited, the deduction is drawn that .Ashburton town docs in a very notable

so during Shopping and Local Industrie? Week, and it goes almost without saying that they will not only command, but will repay, the closest inspection. One does not "notice quite so many shop fronts in Ashburton constructed in the latest style as there are to be seen in the city,"but a beginning has been wade, and it seems safe to predict that it will not be long before the progressive business men of the town will see the practical wisdom of keeping abreast of tho times in this matter. There is a reason for this modern development whk-h is not altogether unrelated to increased business and consequent bigger rot-urns. The sum total of this somewhat rapid survey of Ashburton's business places is that, apart from the absolutely luxurious—the goods and articles bought by the comparative!}' few who possess deep purses —the shoppers seeking to satisfy their requirements will find in the Ashburton shpps nil that .they arc desirous of obtaining at a price as low and of a quality equal to what they could obtain the same class of goods elsewhere. That being so, why not shop in your own town? say the Ashburton business people. "SHOP IN YOUR OWN TOWN." As to the manner in which Shopping and Local Industries Week is to be observed it will have been gathered from what has gone before that, the retailers will make special window displays of their goods in order to impress on the large numbers that will be visiting the town, the fact that Ashburton business men are not one whit behind those in other centres in the matters of business enterprise and of stocking a wide range of goods, the price and quality of which need fear no comparison with those on salo in other centres. In conjunction with these special window displays advantage will be taken of the opportunity effectively, to boost some of| the most'important of the Dominion's secondary industries. There will be about a dozen of these industrial, displays, including two exhibits of New Zealand manufactured boots and shoes, an exhibit of Canterbury-made clothing, rugs, underwear and woollen goods generally, another of shirts, another of articles constructed of wire, another of sauces and jams, another of biscuits and confectionery, another of articles 'made-of seagrass, an exhibit of twino, one of articles of food made • from oats, and another of health foods. In short, on a small scale, there will be.an industrial exhibition that will not only - be. generally interesting but will be a valuable index to the high standard of quality attained by New Zealand manufacturers. And each exhibit will carry two highly important exhortations, that all who run.may read: '.' Buy in your own town, anil buy New Zealand goods'!" In the matter of these industrial displays the committee of Ashburton business men who havo organised Shopping and Local Industries Week has received much assistance and advice from the president and members of the Canterbury Industrial Associa-, tion. . i ■...'• V . THE BOROUGH'S PROGRESS. - It. will not bo out of place to make passing reference to the progress of the town of Ashburton.' When it is recalled that the "borough was established only 47 years ago, there is nothing but admiration possible for tho advances made in a period so comparatively short. Prom the point of ,view of population it easily holds second place amongst the boroughs of Canteri ury outside the capital city of the province, and in municipal.enterprise it has no reason to fear comparison with any town of similar size and population "in the Dominion. The buildings in the business and residential parts of the town are substantial and well constructed and its public buildings are in keeping. There are few better -indications of the state of trade generally in any centre than the condition of the building trade, and judged by this standard Ashburton at

and direct manner, give its full quota of support to the Ashburton farmer. Tho proposition advanced is: Does the Ashburton farmer rceiprocato to anything like the same extent t There is "no idea in the mind of the Ashburton business man of accusing the country residents of complete neglect of the town; the general prosperity of the Ashburton businesses indicates that such a contention could not be successfully maintained, for the trade of tho residents alone is not sufficient to account for the whole of the existing volume of business. It is submitted, however, that there is a certain amount of shopping done outsido the town that could, with as great advantage to the shoppers, be done in Ashburton. To some extent the Ashburton business man advises that he himself has contributed to this state of things. He has not made the farmer and the country resident as fully aware as he might have done of what the business places of the town can provide in the matter of seeds, yes, even in the matter of farming implements and the thousand and one things used on the farm —that are procured elsewhere than in Ashburton. Ho says that he. has the goods, and can deliver them, and that during Shopping and Local Industries Week he intends to give ocular demonstration of that fact. ' Mr Parmer and Mr Country Resident, and their respective spouses are, therefore, cordially invited to take particular note of the comprehensiveness and general up-to-dateness of tho stocks of goods carried by the different business places in the town, and compare price and quality with goods and articles of the same character that, in. tho past, they have got elsewhere. ENTERPRISING BUSINESSES. Reference has been niado to the necessity, now and then, of emphasising the obvious, and it may prove'intercsting to make a brief survey of Ashburton's business quarter through the eyes of an observer who, like the present writer, has no local bias. - It is necessary, first, to get the right perspective. The necessary, though "by some considered tiresome, statistics, inform one that apart from tho capital of the province, Ashburton is, as regards population, second on the list of Canterbury boroughs: they also convey the warning that there is no common basis of comparison'between a centre with, a population of between 5000 and 6000 and ono of 70,000 or 80,000, with an t additional 45,000 or 50,000 in close proximity. Yet after making due allowance for this. and other factors, it has to be admitted that as regards the number and character of the business places of Ashburton they arc well in advance of its population, and, as regards the variety and quality of the stocks carried, they are such as to meet the requirements of tho people of .the.town and of the populous and prosperous area comprised in the county of Ashburton. The shops in East street, Burnett street, Tancred street, and the Triangle aro commodious, and the window displays arc attractively arranged: at night they are effectively illuminated by electricity, tho lights on the verandahs adding greatly to the completeness of the scheme of il lumination. Attractive and temptingly set out as the window displays are on ordinary occasions, they will be more

present is in a very healthy position. There is a fairly large number of residences in tho town proper and also in the country under erection. Bigger jobs in hand, or to be put in hand shortly, include a, new Methodist Church to be erected in brick, a large Presbyterian Sunday School in the same material, and large additions to the Nurses' Home at the Public Hospital, also in brick; and extensive additions to tho drillshed are to be effected in timber. Another index to the prosperity of Ashburton town and county is the astonishing manner in which the use of clcctricitv is extending; the record of tho Ashburton Power Board for the three years that it has been in existence being ono of which residents have every reason to be intensely proud. In the matter of streets and roads both the Borough Council and the County Council are showing considerable energy and enterprise . Many of the principal streets in tho borough are to be reconstructed in accordance with the most up-to-date methods, and the County Council is concentrating on the improvement of tho main highways. Ashburton" has been always famous for its beautifully laid out public gardens and its picturesque domain, and the amenities of the town have been further improved as the result of the tho Advance ABhburton Association, evidences of which aro to be seen on every hand. The people of Ashburton are well catered for in the matter of amusements, outdoor and indoor They aro-justly proud of His Majesty's Theatre, a place, of amusement that would be a credit to a town two or three times the size of Ashburton.