CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21417, 8 March 1935, Page 7

CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

4> ■ TOURIST MATTERS BUSINESS AT MONTHLY MEETING The council of the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce met last evening. Mr F. W. Hobbs presiding. Present were: Messrs L. G. K. Steven, A. M. Burns, C. P. Agar, W. S. Newburgh, H. S. Williams. R. W. Midgley, S. L. Wright, A. C. Bretherton, H. S. E. Turner,' H. Kitson, K. Ballantyne, W. MacKay, M. J. Burns, C. E. Hoy, F. W. Furby, W. S. Mac Gibbon, M. J. Russell, S. Mair, P. L. Porter, John Mac Gibbon, T. N. Gibbs, W. Machin, H S Barns, A. O. Wilkinson, W. H. Nicholson, A. F. Wright, R. T. McMillan, and J. Roy Smith (secretary). Mr G W. Clinkard, general manager of the tourist and Publicity Department wrote suggesting that those members of the chamber who had business or other connexions with firms or individuals residing overseas should supply him with lists of addresses of people they considered likely to be interested in the Dominion and attracted to it. He would undertake to forward to these addresses a supply of descriptive literature together with a card conveying the compliments of the appropriate New Zealand business house and of the department. By this means a direct approach to an important class of potential tourist visitors would be secured. . ..-,.„ T „+ The chamber was invited by the Lyttelton Harbour Board to contribute a sum of say, £IOO, to a publicity scheme with the final object of inducing overseas steamship companies to send their tourist cruise vessels to Lyttelton, it not to other southern ports It was hoped to raise a sum of £750 to be spent through the New Zealand railways publicity department on poster, newspaper, folder, and moving picture advertising in Australia and New Zealand to educate the Australian people to a desire for travel in the South Island. , , ~ . The request was referred to the touiist committee of the chamber. Itinerant Traders The executive of the Associated Chambers reported that it had considered a remit from the last conference asking for a more equitable tee (say, £25 for any period up to three months) on itinerant traders and auctioneers operating in any centre m the Dominion. It believed, however, that the whole subject was too complicated to be dealt with in a wholesale manner, and that merely for the present fees to be increased as suggested would result in injustice. I It was difficult to detine what con- ! stituted itinerant trading and what was hawking. There were many reputable trading concerns which carried on what might be called itinerant trading in adjacent and smaller centres, but it was obviously not the intention to include these under the regulation. The executive proposed to take no action. Mr Nicholson said that improper practices could well be controlled by the local authority concerned. Otherwise it would be easy for grave injustice to be done. The Associated Chambers of Commerce Vivised that the Post and Telegraph Department had agreed to institute weekly toll telephone accounts for firms in the four main centres, provided firms paid a charge made for the service. The charces were .CI a vcar additional for a linn's first trunk jine, and 5s a year for each succeeding trunk line. A "liny British" Campaign The Empire Service League, North Canterbury branch, asked for the chamber's; support to a "Buy British campaign to be held coincident witn the King's silver jubilee celebrations. Mr Bretherton suggested that it might be advisable for British manufacturers to put their names on the goods manufactured, as so many goodsclaimed to be British made which were not really so. The letter was referred to the retailers' committee. The one hundred and twenty-second economic bulletin prepared by the economics department of Canterbury College for the chamber, was presented by Mr W. Machin. The economics committee, he said, had been in existence for 10 years. He referred particularly to the work at the inception of the committee of Mr Norton Fjrancis and of Mr F. M. Warren. A resolution of appreciation was carried. New Members The following new members from firms entitled to extra representatives under the new scale of subscriptions, were elected: — Distributors, Ltd., Messrs J. W. Fair, C M. Archer, S. P. Dalton; Walter Hill and Sons, Messrs Herbert Hill and Rawei H. Hill; Vacuum Oil Company, Proprietary, Ltd.. Messrs C. D. Gordon and S. Vine: J. Rattray and Son, Ltd.. Mr M. H. Wilkinson; Johns Burns, and Company, Ltd., Mr W. W. Dunkley; New Zealand Farmers' Co-operative Association of Canterbury, Ltd., Messrs J. H. Cunningham and J. Henry; Baker Bros.. Mr O. Baker; J. Montgomery and Company. Messrs Albert Cousens and Robert C. Wickens; Bishop and Godfrey, Mr J. D. Godfrey: E. R. Caygill and Company, Mr E. R. Caygill; New Zealand Breweries, Ltd., Messrs A. Louisson. A. B. Duncan, and E. W. Hasell: Christchurch Press Company, Ltd., Messrs Arthur Cant and F. H. Walls: W. S. Newburgh and Company, Mr Keith W. Newburgh; Briscoe and Company, Ltd., Mr T. C. O'Keefe: H. Matson and Companv. Mr Allan Matson; Calder Mackay Company, Ltd.. Mr W. J. V. Hamilton.