BRITISH TRADE.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVI, Issue 4911, 4 December 1925, Page 4

BRITISH TRADE.

CHANCES IN NEW ZEALAND. DEMAND FOR BRITISH PRODUCTS. Sir Percival Phillips writes from Auckland to the London Daily Mail: Manufactureits in Great Britain have a market here which offers grea't opportunities for development. Nowhere within the Empire are people more willing to resist the temptation of dealing with cheaper foreign competitors. ■ Yet business men complain to me that trade interests in the Mother Country seem singularly blind or indifferent to the possibilities for increasing their exports. I have been tol/I repeatedly that Home firms do not take sufficient interest in the requirements of Dominion customers. They are willing to jsell their wares, but only the wares they are prepared to offer —not necessarily what the New Zealander wants. American firms, on the other hand, are making a determined bid for this market by giving what is as,ked for. Why, ask New Zealand importers and traders, cannot our.own people show as keen a desire to capture orders which by right are theirs? CONTRACT GOES TO U.S. An example of this; policy of “inelasticity” was given me to-day. Tenders were invited several, months ago for a supply of macadam. The lowest price was quoted from the United States. In the desire to keep the order from going to a foreign firm it was suggested to the firm in Great Britain which named the next lowest figure that it might make certain unimportant alterations in its ptfer and thus secure the contract.

The answer was a refusal. The contract, involving £7OOO, had to go to America.

In the words of one Auckland business man, “The people at Home won’t cater to our market. They make a certain thing. You can take it or leave it. Other countries say, ‘You want a certain tiling. We will supply it.’ ”

For example, motor-cars. The roads in New Zealand are still in a primitive state. There are a few good main highways, but many shockingly bad roads. The ordinary British car is wholly unsuited for negotiating such rough tracks. It lacks the necessary clearance for one thing. American cars have been pouring into the Dominion because they meet the needs of the people. The firms that make them have been quick to realise the fact. With the extension of the new system of concrete roads motor-cycles will become increasingly popular. I am 'toljd that there is a fine opportunity for British makers, to establish themselves here. Another complaint is that manufacturers in Great Britain have not enough direct representatives here. They are content with local agents. BRITAIN TOO SLOW. Prompt delivery is a powerful incentive to further trade. Here, again, I am told that Great Britain is inclined to lag behind. Why, it is asked here, should more electric lamps have come into New Zealand last year from Holland and the United States .together than from England ? Why should such things ® s sparking plugs, aluminium ware, electrical appliances, tyres, and other articles too numerous to mention which find a ready market and come in greater quantities be almost a foreign monopoly ? The future prosperity of New Zealand is bound up with the development of hydro-electric power, and in this field Home have a market .which should piove highly profitable. Ten millions are being spent at present on laying, down plants which will extend the use of this new motive power in many aneas. Wireless is on the verge oi <£ boom. The firms first in the field with simply constructed ail'd effective listening-in sets will undoubtedly reap a rich harvest. America is fully alive to the act.

New Zealand wants, practically everything except woollen goods—which she its now making with considerable success—and foodstuffs. She wants high-class articles, no cheap trash, and she wants, them of .British origin. Seventy per cent, of her foreign trade last year was with the United Kingdoms. If her business men had their way nothing : would be bought outside-t'.he Empire. But they ask for eneourfegement from the industries in, the Mother Country.