EMPIRE MARKETING BOARD

Hokitika Guardian, 11 August 1932, Page 8

EMPIRE MARKETING BOARD

ANNUAL REIDRT. ’ .y//'

TWENTY-FIVE NEW EMPIRE RECORDS. ';

LONDON, June 29.

The change which has 'taken, place ■in the buying habits of the British public and the growth of ithe demand for Empire goods ar© clearly brought out in the annual report of the Empire Marketing Board. For twenty-five Empire products new records in quantities of iippprti have ’ be&ii established, apd for more than half cm these the now surpassed was made in tSje/'i(revious ybbr. ( There is jaln "upward ten-: dency at work in spite of the diminished buying power for the public.

NEW ZEALAND RECORDS.

* j /’jb' .v New Zealand produce lias set up three new records. More New Zealand frozen, lamlb, b.utter and pears were imported into the United Kifigdbin; than ever before. AH these commodities bad made previous records in 1930, : but these were easily surpassed in 1931 .j The frozen lamb shipnients, for instance, went up by over 1,000,003 car-' oases. imports of New Zealand' cheese in 1931 have hitherto been exceeded only in 1929 .and 1930. '

Other Empire ooriiniodities >. which' have set up new records in 1931 ih-j cfude wheat and Wheat flopr, frozen* pork, butter and eggs from Australia eggs, sugar and wine (30 per .cent, ih- j crease), grapes and. grapefruit from South .Africa;, bananas Rom the Brit-; iah West Indies, and Malayan pine-! ftihp’es, ""■/<

included in the list are shah comparative novelties in the United Ring-: dibm market, as Canadian, Sputh African .apples and Qyprus oranges, all of which have done better than’ ever before. A large number of other commodities have just failed to make a new record this year. Thuf, coffee from East Afrioa has' excelled all past years, with the single exception of 1930, and Smith Avt i can oranges, totalling Pearly a million cwts., were 33 per cent, higher thai> in any previous year, except 1930.

“BUY BRITISH” CAMPAIGN

The report contains the story of the “Buy British” campaign of Novembe and Decemilier last, and gives the I 'fact* both about the campaign itself and about the remarkable responaelt m’et with from alii section's of thfei commune ity. .More than 4,0C0,C(X) postepkVwere needed to meet the demand for window display, whether .on public buildibg 1 or private motor.«cars. The genertfti? co-operation ojf .-the Press, 8.8. C., the cinema. industry, .the railvay companies and many others enabled this campaign on an .•unprecedented scale to he run at a cost to the Empire Marketing Board of no more than £12,000. '

SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH

As in previous years',the bulk’;,of the Hoard’s income has; been devoted • .to scientific research. ;Soine 70 out of the 100 pages of. the report des<;ribe .the immensely varied fields of research which the board’s, funds have helped to irrigate. The Imperial Conference of 1930 urged the value of joint programmes of scientific work which should he agreed upon, between the -various Empire countries so that effort . and expense might. be... concentrated and economised. Acting upon this. : sug-. gestibn the Board has initiated an interchange of views on what problems of economic importance to the Empire ! most urgently need the further ap- | plication of scientific research. ; 1 It has been the Board’s practice, sincte its foundation in 1926, to make grants for a term o-f years to existing i institutions in conjunction with other bodies. This method has worked ad’mirably, hut it makes discontinuance j difficult. To atop research that .is' under way is commonly to sacrifice money already spent and work already ■done. In ' the interest of national economy the Board is making at present scarcely any fresh grants, and it 'has succeeded, with the co-operation of {/he institutions concerned is reducing its present commitment by between 10 to 25 per cent. Similar economies in publicity and marketing : work enabled the Board to meet the .call made upon it by the Treasury last , summer for the surrender of £llO- - from its total vote of £550 ) 000. ,Fbr the present year, 1932-33, the vote of the Board is £300,000. The main body of the report is concerned with the progress made by tin ; various scientific and agricultural institutions which the Board is r - :

;ing. The field is as wide as the Empir itself. , . - - - ,

, RIGHTING AHi|tAt|, DISEASE ; - ! The mineral consents of ; -pastures and other, aspects of ar i mill! 1 1 li sb an dry ho,ve been the siiiiject of continued investigation; lb the past year, and the Begird is advancing £ for £ with the Pastoral. Research Trust in Australia .for close stjidy of sheep diseases. Throughout South Africa, New Zealand ancl Great Britain, as well as .throughout Australia, . .cf the green-bottle, or blow-fly, , causes 'enormous damage to sheep. .In Australia this damage ,i? estimated at £4,000,006 a yea f.\ Recent iwtigarions have beien concentrated. on. the digestive methods of the blewrfly lurvia 'and its digestive juices have beeu, minutely scrutinised.. In spite of the jextmno difficulties of this microscopic work, great advances have beejn made 'and the relation between mag<M and bacteria are more fully understood.

■ BUTTER-. ; ■>' In the field of marketing intelligence

the Board publish striking figures to .show the .success of the policy of canvassing retailers individually. For six months personal calls were made on 1 ©Very wholesaler and retailer of butter 1 in the principal Lancashire towns. As a result -of these visits the proportion :of those selling Empire butter rose from 56 to 73 per .lent. The retail l imarket surveys of the diemland tor butter have shown that in certain dip- ; t-ricts the consumption of New Zealand butter h«s more than doubled in , the last two years. [i .• ..