Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, OCT. 18, 1896. Pushing Business.

Manawatu Herald, 13 October 1896, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, OCT. 18, 1896. Pushing Business.

We have helped, to oar best, the appointment by the Government of an expert in the flax trade to visit America and Europe to advance its interests, but with, at present, little success. The more, however, tbe question is considered, the more the necessity for such an appointment becomes apparent, and instead of cursing the man who has done most in pointing out the urgency of the matter, the Government and the colony should bless him. In tbe August number of the Review of Review there appears a very full review of the book of the month, " Made in Germany," being a work by Mr E. E. Williams, showing the deoline and fall of British Industrial Supremacy, and reviewing the rise of the German trade. From the remarks therein made we have a lot to learn, and as it bears upon the question of the moment in this district, requires some notice. Mr Williams regretfully acknowledges the advance made by the Germans in trade that at one time wag supposed to be purely British, but he suggests, which we also must take to mind, that the ways of the German ' business people are the ways of success and should be copied. British trade has been defeated because, "we have grown fat and lazy." The Englishman in his business is insular, and he persists in supplying goods according to English pattern, and by English weight. The Germans are, however, credited with taking more trouble than the British, turning out better work, and being muoh more alert in every department 80 as to avoid waste, please their oustomers, and extend their business. This is a picture of our position, we have the idea that if people want our fibre they must come and get it, if they do not send for it, why of course they do not want it. It is a lazy way, and the way that leads to stagnation. To put life into the industry an ! alteration must be made, and this is what we have been urging. The Review again points out the absurd position taken by the British, and, we may add, by this colony. We refer to the employment of the British Consuls and our AgentGeneral. The Germans employ Consuls who arev commercial men, for the purpose of assisting the com* mercial classes to push their business. Hence, so it is Baid, a German Consul is the sworn friend and ally of every German bagman who visits a foreign country* He makes the pushing of German business a matter of personal pride, and his success is the best oredential for official promotion. It may be remembered how, some few years back, we urged the Government to have reliable cablegrams Bent by the Agent-General of the prices ruling for flax in the London market, at the time when prices were weekly fluctuating, and how, after very muoh trouble, we were successful in obtaining this conoesaion. We also very well know what a farce the information sent was, how many days behind the fair it arrived, and how the merchants secured contracts giving them two .or three pounds a ton profit, before the Government cable arrived. We aho know how little any AgentGeneral has succeeded in finding to what various purposes the flax is pat to in England, and how often he has assured us that our flax could not compete in any way with manilla. Thus we have had instances in this colony of taking trade matters too easy, and can therefore realise the German victory over English trade when it is conducted in the same manner. Flax happens to be much more valuable- an article than our Agent- General or our Government appears to think, as to-day the difference in value between it and manilla is but one pound a ton, a fact, if standing alone, sufficient to have suggested to the Government that there must be more in it than they had believed. All who are interested in setting the flax, industry on a more satisfactory footing, and it is almost impossible to believe there are any that are not, must insist upon the Government getting out of the rut of easy-going which has been the cause of the decline in British trade, and must insist that they take a pattern from the Germans. One step in the right direction being the immediate appointment of a flax commercial traveller on the lines proposed at the public meeting held lately in our Public Hall. We will conclude with % valuable remark of Mr Williams' :— "Lastly, let me reiterate that the great cause of German success is an alert progressiveness, contrasting brilliantly with the conservative stupor of ourselves. It is all very well to run an old fashioned business, but you must diligently and continuously be striving to bring its methods up to date. And this is what English manufacturers fail to recognise."