FAME FOR OTAGO.

Mt Benger Mail, 12 October 1938, Page 1

FAME FOR OTAGO.

BRITAIN LEARNS THE STORY OF THE SCOTTISH SETTLEMENT. CONTRASTS IN NEWS. “The time has come,” the Walrus said, j To talk of many things; Of Shoes and Ships and Sealing Wax And Cabbages and Kings.” Whatever the text-books may tell us, the newspapers are the greatest j medium for the spread of Empire knowledge, and the maintenance of 1 Empire contacts. The New Zealander I whjoi is fortunate enough to have a I page or so of Homeland news at his disposal daily, thinks himself (perhaps I ' rightly) better informed on Home af- • ' fairs than in the average Briton on ' Dominion affairs. Here’s how Britain gets its news of New Zealand:— “ HEADLINES. “New Zealand Order for Britain.” — Financial News. f “Buying British —New Zealand Places £200,000 Orders.” Evening j News. ]’ “3,000,000 Britons Wanted New Zealand Settlement Campaign. ’ ’ —St. Helen’s Reporter. 1 “New Zealand Buys British.” — Daily Mail. i “Pensions for All at Sixty.”— Western Mail. “New Zealand Moving On —The New Plan of Trade.”—Children’s Newspaper. j “New Zealand Premier Defies the Doctors.”—Glasgow Bulletin. • “New Zealand to Stand by Britain.”—Shields Evening News, i “ 'No Split with Britain—New Zea- * land Premier.”—Evening Standard. 1 OPINION. And here’s what the representative ' British newspapers say about New Zealand finance and legislation:— “The New Zealand Government hopes next year to launch its first instalments of Utopia. . . This will remain very pretty reading until the people of New Zealand are faced with finding the cash.”—Daily Mail.

1 “Wbuld that the statesmen of this land would launch upon the great adventure of creating conditions of social security for all the poor, the under- , privileged and the unfortunate.” — South Woles Argus.

! "In the long run we should consider it most unlikely that New Zealand would default, and for the m|ost numerous non-active class of investors, who are prepared to see markets fall without losing sleep, over it, we believe that New Zealand issues remain a safe source of income.”—lnvestor’s Chronicle.

j' “ The example of the Dominion should give an impetus to the cam- ! paign on behalf of the aged poor in t this country—a campaign that ought to command the sympathy and support 1 of every thoughtful person. , . One /point of criticism, however, is the ability of New Zealand to carry 1 through the scheme were financial conj ditions to deteriorate,- but the people of Britain of the Pacific hope "and work | 'for the best.”—Edinburgh Evening I News. ~ ■ ' "New Zealand cannot go on indefinitely raising her standards of life without people in this and other countries wanting to copy her.”'—Daily Herald. “Although the New Zealand Government has now introduced its Social Security Bill prices for the Dominion’s securities have remained quiet and firm. , This is in strange contrast to the atti--1 tude of the market a few months ago.” [Financial Times. I “New Zealand at the present time is | a land of social experimentation, but I it may be doubted whether this attempt to socialise the medical service ‘ would prov popular in practice. ’’ — Daily Telegraph. NEWS, The lighter and brighter papers report that the New Zealand Minister of ' Agriculture has denied a suggestion I that sheep affected by facial eczema j have been killed in New Zaland and ! passed as fit for human consumption. It is curious how this facial eczema business has appealed to certain British newspapers. The plea is that it has news value because two million people or so are engaged in agriculture; yet it is doubtful whether one agricultural worker of a thousand has ever heard of it. j Britain loses millions a year from I mastitis, sterility, and abortion in cows, foot-rot in sheep and the rabbit pest, 1 but it doesn’t make a newspaper to-do about it. Apparently It requires cable ' transmission to impart the subtle quality called news. SERVICE. In the last few days many Britons have learned more about' New Zealand < than they over knew before. No fewer , than 34 newspapers have published Lord Strathspey’s story about the ori- < gin of Otago settlement based on the , 93rd anniversary of the holding of the ! public meeting in the Glasgow Trades j Hall at which the historic community J ' emigration plan of Captain Cargill and i j the Rev. Thomas Burns, nephew of the j ! poet, was launched. New Zealanders are doubtless au fait with the main V | 'outline of the story, but Lord Strath- V j spey, Chief of Grant, Otago-born and j I old Waitakian, must have gone to in- j 1 finite trouble to dig out the details, r - Rightly he observed that the episode | ‘ 1 deserved to rank with the sailing of the Mayflower in the chronicles of

British. Colonisation,” and lie recommended to students of history the “marking of this simple episode in their calendar of momentous historic events.” Otago Scots who retain their pawky Caledonian humour will chuckle, over Lord Strathspey’s stato‘ment that they bear with eqanimity the compliment to their financial skill and enterprise contained in the Sassen- • ach appellation “mortgages of New Zealand,” : Lord Strathspey has done a signal .service in so widely proclaim- [ ing .the splendid .foundations of Brit- ( ain’s furthermost Dominion;' visiting New Zealanders might well remember that sweet are the uses of “advertise- J ment” of the right kind. By the way, the Glasgow Trades Hall remains the oldest public building in the Scottish city. It is not trade union headquarters, but the home of the craft guilds. SALESMANSHIP. | Opportunism is an important factor in marketing. The New Zealand marketing authorities in London lie watch- 1 fully across the path of stalking chance. At Newcastle the other day there was launched a ship, Dominion Monarch, largest of the food freighters, and judging by the number of newspapers which tied up the launch of this new Shaw Savill vessel with the origin of the refrigerated meat trade from New Zealand in the old Shaw Savill sailer Dunedin, one would think that the launch ■ was for the special purpose of telling the world of the progress (and excellence) of New Zealand’s meat produce. ! The Fruit Board and Dairy Sales Division have cashed in heavily on Empire exhibition publicity; the former | to date has disposed of 119,500 samples > of fruit to the public at the exhibition, the latter of 50,301 samples of butter ■ and 87,471 samples of cheese. And, of course, the Dairy Sales Division did not neglect the close of the marketing year as a medium for publicity; many of the newspapers carried interesting reviews of the marketing scheme and some kernelised the whole story of New Zealand dairying since Captain Cook tried abortively to introduce the first cow! ■