Uneasy About N.Z. Image In England

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30976, 4 February 1966, Page 14

Uneasy About N.Z. Image In England

Mr G. M. Miller, senior lecturer in economics at the University of Canterbury, has returned after a year in England “vaguely uneasy about New Zealand’s image —or lack of it,” He said: “It is something I can’t precisely define.”

However, Mr Miller gave some pointers. “There is an almost complete lack of news about New Zealand in British newspapers, the only two headlines I noticed being the Auckland quintuplets and the prison riots,” he said. “If the completion of the Cook Strait power cable and of Benmore were not newsworthy, I would think it worth while to advertise them through firms or through the Government. “The only New Zealand firms which appear to be doing anything to promote an effective image in London are some trading banks on a modest scale.

“Every New Zealander in Britain discovers that the people are extremely well disposed to us, perhaps more so than to Australians,” Mr Miller said, “but it is significant that whereas the image of Australia as a nation is clear cut. New Zealand’s hardly exists.

“I was not even convinced, though I suppose I should have been, that New Zealand is as skilful and successful in marketing its products as we have always been led to believe. Butter and cheese seem to be handled best. The sale of meat seems to depend a great deal (in London at least) on a relatively small number of substantial butchers.

“New Zealand apples and pears were hard to obtain. I was told they were of too high a quality and too large to sell freely in Earls Court and Kensington markets. However, Tasmanian apples of similar grade were selling well. “I did see six cases of fancy-grade New Zealand Delicious apples being unloaded at the Isle of Mull, in the Western Hebrides, I saw them in Amsterdam but not so labelled, and I heard that our apples were also available in ' most Scandinavian countries.

“I suspect New Zealand has fitted in with the over-all marketing schemes of large firms where produce is pooled,” said Mr Miller. “We seem to have abandoned qualities of aggression in selling produce under our own brand names.” Another New Zealand issue was “pin-pointed” in a talk Mr Miller had with an Englishman in Venice. “For more than two hours he taxed me with questions which amounted to: ‘Does New Zealand have a culture and, if so, what does it look like?’ When he sees the proposed designs for our decimal coins he will have his answer,” said Mr Miller.