Rangitikei Advocate. MONDAY, JUNE 17, 1907. SECOND EDITION. EDITORIAL NOTES

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXII, Issue 8840, 17 June 1907, Page 2

Rangitikei Advocate. MONDAY, JUNE 17, 1907. SECOND EDITION. EDITORIAL NOTES

THE proposal that Now Zealand mado goods of a certain standard should receive some kind of hall mark from the Government is not a very practical or desirable one. The chief object of the suggestion is to induce people to buy articles made in Sew Zealand in preference to imported goods, and the subsidiary advantage is claimed for the scheme that it will prevent the production or sale of impure or second-class productions. This latter point can, we think, be provided for by the law already in force which permits the police to obtain samples of goods offered for sale, and to prosecute the vendor if they are not of the requisite purity. Tliis is a much simpler task for Government than that of stamping the whole output of cur factories as reaching a certain ■ standard. The difference between the two methods may he shown by the system adopted in dealing with theft. It is comparatively a simple matter to prosecute and punish persons committing theft, but it would bo a far more complicated problem to provide a certificate of character for all persons who were considered as proof against temptation to commit theft. There is no similarity between the proposed system and that of grading our produce for export. The butter and flax exported lias all to pass through a few ports and can there ho examined without much difficulty, whereas the stamping of all home made articles would require inspectors in every town, as it would obviously be unfair to deprive country producers of the supposed benefit of the Government brand while granting it in the larger centres, where inspection would he less difficult. We must therefore dismiss the proposal as quite impracticable. The allegation that people prefer- imported goods to home-made is a totally different question, on which opinions are certain to differ. We confess that we have seen no evidence that there is any prejudice against New Zealand made goods as such. The chief point that attracts most buyers is cheapness, and the second is quality. It is generally admitted that New Zealand manufacturers do not produce very cheap goods, but that in some lines the quality is excellent. No one who has ever seen first-class New Zealand blankets or rugs could help preferring them to any imported article, hut unfortunately preferences have to be regulated by the purse, and thus many buyers have to content themselves with inferior hut cheaper British goods. In the case of tweeds and other clothing materials the quality of our homemade goods may ho, aud wo believe actually is. high, but the appearance aad variety of patterns of imported’fabrics is so far superior that tailors find it hopeless to stock New Zealand made cloth. In the matter of food, jams, biscuits, etc., wc do not think that manufacturers who provide good articles have the slightest difficulty in selling them. A good many of the New Zealand productions can only be described as second class, and no Government mark will convince people that they are worth the money asked for them. In the long run the public ' knows pretty well what it requires, aud the aim of our manufacturers 1 should be to provide what is.wanted instead of looking to Government to persuade people to buy inferior 1 articles because they are home-made.

IN’ the new journal Australia some remarks appear on the proposed professional football team, which appear to put the objections to professionalism in a nutshell. “The introduction of professionalism would evolve experts of football whom nobody wants, football not being of vital importance in itself. The game should not be made an end, but a means to an end, to mould boys into hardy men prepared to work for a living and take the hard knocks' of tho world, smiling. ’ ’ The writer of the above lines does something to put football into the proper perspective in tho picture of life. Children put aside their childish games as they grow up for more serious things, so also in its turn should football give way to tho real business of life. The man who is a good player of football, and nothing more, is valueless to the country, whereas one who knows how to work is useful to tho community as well as to himself, A well-known schoolmaster in England said to his boys that lie regarded tho time spent iii games as pure gain, but ho grudged the time spent afterwards- in talking over the games. No doubt many employers in Now Zealand might equally well

complain of the amount of time their employees waste in discussing football topics. The controversy as to the advantages and disadvantages cn professional football will have some good results if it brings about a better understanding of the true, place of sport in our life.