NO LOYAL SUPPORT

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 1, 23 March 1927, Page 5

NO LOYAL SUPPORT

N.Z. GOODS NEGLECTED MINISTER REBUKES PEOPLE (From Our Resident Correspondent.') WELLINGTON, Tuesday. A direct and very concise opinion upon preference to New Zealand-made goods is contained In a telegram which the Hon. A. D. McLeod has sent to those controlling the newly-formed “New Zealand-made Preference League.” In reply to an invitation to attend the opening of the industrial fair at Auckland to-morrow, the Minister regrets the impossibility of his personal attendance. “As Minister for Industries,” he says, “and as a New Zealander I cordially support the movement your league has inaugurated. During a recent inspection of a number of factories, it was a matter of surprise and regret to me to find that in some cases well-made articles of high quality and excellent finish were being sent out to retailers without any indication that they were manufactured locally, and on making inquiries as to the reason for such omission I was informed in every case that it was a condition insisted upon by some of the distributors. “It would appear therefore that an unwarranted prejudice exists against some lines of New Zealand-made goods, and if your league can assist in killing such prejudice and Imbuing our people with a sense of the desirability of loyally supporting their own industries, it will from the point of view of the Dominion’s prosperity have served a highly useful purpose.”