“GREATER N.Z.”

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 414, 24 July 1928, Page 13

“GREATER N.Z.”

BOOSTING THE PRODUCTS HOW TO ENCOURAGE TOURISTS Assuming that he had been elected president of the “Greater New Zealand Society,” Mr. Alexander Marky, one-time editor of American “Pearson’s Magazine,’ outlined the steps he would take to bring riches and prosperity to the Dominion, in an address to the Advertising Club, at its weekly luncheon to-day. Never in any other country in the [world, he said, had he found such posj sibilities for the production of cheese as in N< w Zealand, and yet tl ■ si j was not the best. The honey produced | here had no touch of acidity, but a ! smooth mellow sweetness, which would | demand a world trade if only it could 1 be put under an arresting trade-mark I and shown to other countries. A demand had to be created that was all. “If little Hungary can send her beans to Boston to be made into baked beans, surely New Zealand can send her produicts to New York. San Francisco and Chicago,” ! he said. “NEVER SEEN THE COLOUR” Americans, he declared, never saw the colour of New Zealand butter because all that reached U.S.A. was. used as a base to bring up the quality of American butter. If the butter could be marketed as New Zealand produce it would soon build up a great overseas trade. The trouble was that farmers were satisfied to carry on in the way their fathers and grandfathers had done. “My idea would be to put up the honey, cheese, and butter in packages, get the best salesmen abroad, and in two years’ time I would be getting my money back.” Other veins of wealth in the country were absolutely unexploited. Greenstone was unused except to make trinkets, but pushed by publicity it might become a stone for architecture and statuary. There was asbestos, iron and copper-sand in almost inexhaustible quantities, but it was not used.

One excuse was that there was not. enough money here, but New Zealand had £SOO to £6OO a head of population, and was richer in savings than any other country. Why should not the money be put to practical use? In (he streets 90 per cent, of the people are in ill-kempt clothes,” lie said. “Why not create a demand lor better-kept clothes? Ask them why they should appear shabby. A great line of dyeing and cleaning establishments has been built up in the States through publicity.” IMPROVING HOMES

Dominion homes, he said, were capable of being improved with hundreds of labour-saving and pleasure-giving devices. There seemed to be some argument against purchasing on the instalment plan, but Henry Ford would not have created his millions had he not sold his car on the instalment plan to those who might use it as they paid. The science of food had com© into its own and there were possibilities in that. In art and literature there was big scope. Why should a Sir Ernest Rutherford or a Walpole have to go abroad to achieve success? Undoubtedly the Dominion was a tourist paradise, but the tourists would never come unless there were ships to bring them and hotels to accommodate them. The boats at present coming to this country were “terrible,” and the hotels might be all right for New Zealanders but they certainly did not appeal to tourists used to the comforts of America and Europe. People after visiting here said: “New Zealand is a beautiful country, but the hotels are terrible.”