"MADE IN GERMANY."

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2252, 11 September 1914, Page 7

"MADE IN GERMANY."

teuton Efforts to drown ; British manufactures COMMERCIAL TRAVELLER'S EXPERIENCE % "I've been travelling fancy goods,up and down this country for twenty-five years, and I fancy I'know why the German stuff has commanded such a ready and continuous sale." The speaker was a well-known and experienced man on the road, as well as an extremely loyal subject of King George. "German manufacturers," he said, "aro always ahead of the. times, always appear to be in first with a new line; or a new design an an old line. They have contracted the habit of leading, not following. Then people say, 'Why can't England turn out stuff just as good! . Now; I'm not going to say that England can't, but she doesn't—at the price.

Wurtemburg Plato. "Take individual lines," he went oh. "There is ho country iii the world that can look at Wurtemburg electro-plate. Whilst English manufacturers are turning out the sort of lines they have been turning out for twenty thirty, or forty years past, the big German manufacturers have staffs of artists, who are constantly employed in turning out now designs in everything that is made of electro-plate; That is why the-majority of retailers stock up with it; The plate itself is just as good as the same grade in England, , but the designs are original arid artistic. Then, perhaps, some firm who mixes a, little patriotism . with its business will say when called on: 'I'll give you an order for that line if it ie-made by an English house.' The article is sent Home as a,pattern, arid what is the result? Either the firm refuses to do the work at all, or the. workmanship (particularly iii the- finish) is inferior'to the Gerruari article. Oiy the. other hand, give a German manufacturer an inkling of what is required, arid he-11l get to work in great style. He is just as keen to please the market with ite own ideas as to supply it with his own; Plate covers a multitude of articles, from tiny little thimble cases to great table services;

Repousse Work. '"I know what the Commissioner of the British Board of Trade said on the subject, and am sorry to say that in the light of practical experience, he is hardly right-. The English are slow, whilst the Germans are quick to seize upon a new idea. If you remember, a few years ago, this repousse work —battered copper and brass —became a rage. As. artistic craft-work (hand battered and shaped).it was very.expensive, but still,, people wanted it. The German metal men saw a- chance at once, and flooded the world with machine-made imitation repousse work. There is any amount of it in New Zealand. I believe I am right in saying that it nearly all comes from Germany; This war is a great chance for the English maniir faofcurer to make good. For the past twenty years ho has allowed.the .Germans to «tep_ in, not onlj' with cheap stuff (where the Englishman hasn't a look-in) but in better-class goods. If ho wants to succeed the British manufacturer must not have such a modified appreciation for art. Adoration for art has helped to make Germany. "If England is going to score in the manufacturing world she will have to throw her old conservatism overboard, and rise- a new England, fully resolved to get ahead; in the race for the world's trade, for which new handicaps have now been issued. One nation. I know, which will score is Japan. For some years past the influence of japan has been felt in the fancy goods world, and if she could hold up against Germany before, her trade must take-a jump fornow that the former nation is cut .off short for an" indefinite period. I'm tipping that some of our Christmas toys will come from Japan this year. America will also have a go, but she has not the advantages of cheap labour possessed by Eastern competition."

A Conservative View. The above deductions were submitted ta oiie of the- heads of a very large firin in Wellington who said without hesitation that they were full of truth. Of course, he knew of firms which did not stock Wurtomburg plate. His own firm, for example, obtained all its high-claes plate in Sheffield. Still, he knew the Wurtembtirg plate as very beautiful and high-class goods, that was, as tho traveller says, very difficult to pass by. Ho admitted tho'adaptability of the German manufacturer, but qualified it with the remark that once German firms becamo eolidly established . thoy would not chango their designs with such ability as they, now do when they are endeavouring to bqat the English manufacturer in his own markets. Regarding repousse work, a great deal of it canio from Germany, but thero were English firms which included it in their lines. Ho had'been told that the warehouses had already got their toys for tf» coining year-end. It.was tho retailer who indented that would have to make other arrangements.