VERY CONSERVATIVE

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 321, 7 September 1932, Page 7

VERY CONSERVATIVE

OPPORTUNITY MISSED CHRISTCHURCH BUSINESSMAN'S CRITICISM OF BRITISH MANUFACTURERS. AMERICANS MORE ALERT. "The British manufacturers are quite content to carry on in their own conservative way. They want more business, hut they won't go the right way about getting it," said Mr. J. W. Simes, manufacturers' agent, of Christchurch, discussing experiences in England with manufacturers whom he had approached with a yiew to handling their lines in New Zealand. "Lackadaisical" was one of the terms he applied to them. Their attitude, he said, was in marked contrast to that of American and German manufacturers, and some of the factories he saw in England compared very unfavourably with th'e American and German ones. Mr. Simes, who is interested more partieularly in hardware lines, has just returned from a trip to Great Britain, the Continent, and America, and Canada, being away from New Zealand for six months. What with the exchange rate, and the extra duty, the effect of whieh was to give British goods a preferenee of about 70 per cent. over the American, he had been finding American lines difficult to handle in New Zealand, and went to England with the idea of securing more British lines. But he did not find the British manufacturer at all helpful. While in London, Mr. Simes saw the head of the Department of Overseas Trade, and found that the latter did not know the amount of preferenee that British goods enjoyed over American in the New Zealand marlcet. He was astonished when Mr. Simes told him what it was. "A lot of the British manufacturers are very keen to gat business, but they are very disinclined to appoint representatives to further their interests out here," said Mr. Simes. "They are terribly conservative people, I found. "I pointed out that by appointing a representative out here they could lceep in touch with conditions and secure more business, but they preferred to work through the London commission houses. They've heen doing business that way for hundreds of years, you might say, and they don't feel inclined to change. With 70 per cent. preferenee over American lines, there is a golden opportunity in the New Zealand market today for British hardware manufacturers, but they are not taking advantage of it. "In Manchester I rang up one firm, ! whose advertisement I had seen, and I asked them if they would consider ap- ! pointing a representative out here. j They said, 'No.' I told them all about ! myself, and said that if necessary I ' would out the whole thing in writing.

I They rsplied that it wasn't necessary, i as they had no intention of appointing ; an agent. Exactly the same thing | happened in London." j There was one big manufacturer in London, whom Mr. Simes went to see, j by the manufacturers own request. ' It was Saturday morning when Mr. ! Simes finally managed to get an in- | terview with him. j "Do you realise that this is Saturi day morning?" asked the manufac- : turer. { Mr. Simes realised that. i "Well, it's a very awlcward time." ( The manufacturer wanted to have a ( talk, said Mr. Simes, but not on Mon- | day or Tuesday, because he would be | busy then, and not on Wednesday, be- | cause that was Derby Day. They fi- ; nally had a talk on Thursday. | American manufacturers wero very ! different to do business with, said Mr. i Simes. A groupi of manufacturers [ over there would employ a selling or- ; ganisation; the manufacturer thus took no part in the selling of his goods, hut confined himself to the manufacturing side. Behind the T5mes. In England, on the other hand, | manufacturers simply relied on the i orders that came to them in the ordinary way of business. "I told them they should take a leaf out of the Americans' hook, and some of them seemed rather to resent it," he said. Mr. Simes found that many of the British factories were very behind the times, too. "They are very poor comi pared with the American. They are ' poorly equipped, poorly lighted, and I the conditions under which large num5 bers of the employees work are very bad, to my idea. They are like dungeons compared with the American and German factories. Some of the } British manufacturers do not like showing you through' their factories, j whereas the Germans and the Americans are glad to do so." j In Germany, Mr. Simes found about half the factories closed up, and the other half working only two or three days a week. But he was very warmly received by the manufacturers there; they would meet him at the station, take him round their factories, and were very anxious to do business. He was struck by the cleanliness of the German factories, and found the plant very up-to-date. German Troubles. But the high tariffs against German goods were a big ubstacle in the way of doing business with them. Germany was having a very bad time indeed, and the business people seemed to think things were almost hopeless, there were so many forees against them. Every square inch of land in Germany was utilised, th'e visitor found, and he saw girls of 14 and 15 leading out two oxen in farm drays, carting and spreading manure. Nothing was wasted there. In Great Britain, Mr. Simes went from London to Glasgow by charabanc, but after that experience he was glad to do the rest of his travelling by rail, which he found much more comfortable. The charabancs were not allow to enter some of the cities, and would sometimes drop their passengers four miles from the centre ■of a city, leaving them to make th'e rest of the journey as best they could. Coming haek across Canada, Mr. Simes met the Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates

at Lake Louise. Mr. Vivian Grant, another Christchurch business man, who accompanied Mr. Simes in his travels, was present during the interviews, and corroboraied Mr. Simes' remarks about the laclc of enterprise shown by British manufacturers.