King Country Chronicle Wednesday, April 26, 1911. "SUPPORT LOCAL INDUSTRY."

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 355, 26 April 1911, Page 4

King Country Chronicle Wednesday, April 26, 1911. "SUPPORT LOCAL INDUSTRY."

Our American cousins are nothing if not enterprising, and when we read of committees of townsmen in different parts of that vast republic organising their resources and planning great publicity campaigns in the interests of the cities they live in, we are lead to wonder whether such vigorous town-building methods might not be adopted even in New Zealand with some amount of success. The American plan is to widely advertise the meiits of the particular centre referred to. From Des Moines, for instance, a rising city in the great South West, the puhlicity committee send out advertisements of the value of their centre for establishing new industries. They refer to the lack of this or that industry, and welcome with open arms the newcomer prepared to establish the desired business. Can we do anything on those lines in Te Kuiti and the King Country? We might usefully point to the quality and reasonable price of much of the land surrounding us, to trio openings for further settlement, to the wonderful possibilities that | loom ahead in the development of th? | and still to do in cutting tirr.b-tr sr.:; j opening up the jar.d u: on which it • grows. To the sportsman we ccu'cl i speak of our fishing and sheeting | resorts, and to the tcurist of cur 1 beauty spots. Coming closer to the | towns,, it is argued that a re a! | loyalty would support iocai industry ! and enterprise, by buying everything !at Te Kuiti or -whatever other ! centre a householder lived in. How ; far this would be successful depends | largely upon the storekeepers them- : selves. Undoubtedly, a great amount ;of trade is done direct with Auck- | land merchants, by settlers who buy ! their stores in wholesale quantities, jWe believe much of this trade | could be competed for successfully |by local traders, if they had the I opportunity of giving a quotation. I Apart from this, is it lack of loyal!ty to the town we live in, to buy j from outside? The question is a i highly debateable one. Trade, i whether wholesale or retail, resolves | itself in the long run into a question | of successfully giving the best value iat the lowest price. If a local storei keeper succeeds in doing this, he j keeps the trade. It would be useless, i therefore, to argue that we should all | support our local stores, unless some | reasonable relation existed between i the prices charged there and else- | where. Quality and price inevitably | tell. Subject to this reservation, we ! heartily support any movement for ! inducing our townsfolk to be loyal to | their district. When precisely equal { values given, why go elsewhere? Te j Kuiti is, as we remarked the other | day, going to develop into a big j centre. It is to have its butter fac- | tory, and has already got some of the : best-managed and equipped store 3 bei twecn the big cities. The railway : station alterations just completing | indicate the importance of the town, j and are a proof of the rapid expan- | sion of the district.' The other day | the Minister in charge of the Tourist ! Department, replied to a deputation that the making of a road between Te Kuiti and Lake Taupo was a probable and desirable work. That road, and the direct road to the Waitomo Caves also made —-a matter of only four miles, and giving us direct access in eight miles —it follows that Te Kuiti becomes an important centre for tourists. We can well believe that once these two roads were made, and especially the short Waitomo read, the development in tourist traffic between Te Kuiti and Waitomo will be immense. Our boarding house and hotel keepers, our shops and stores, will all benefit. It is one of the works we might usefully keep in mind. And it is one that will repay itself manifolld, when done.