RAILWAY PUBLICITY

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 814, 7 November 1929, Page 6

RAILWAY PUBLICITY

BIGGEST BUSINESS IN DOMINION TELLING THE WORLD “We know that what is spent in advertising is the most profitable direct investment any man or business can make.” So said Mr. W. W. Stewart, publicity officer for the New Zealand Hallways, during the course of an address at a luncheon arranged by the Auckland Advertising Club today. Mr. H. H. Sterling, general manager of New Zealand Railways, was scheduled to speak on ' The Advertising Policy of the Largest Business in New Zealand,” but owing to his unavoidable absence at a function in Napier, Mr. Stewart, who is also president of the Wellington Advertising Club, in addition to liis connection with railway publicity, made a special £rip to. Auckland to take Mr. Sterling’s place. A number of delegates to the Advertising Club vention were present and Mr. F. W. Petterd presided. The Railways Department preferred the word “publicity” to “advertising,” said Mr. Stewart, who contended that the former word conveyed the object sought much more clearly. NEW ZEALAND’S BIGGEST BUSINESS

“The advertising policy of the largest business in New Zealand is to remain the largest business in New Zealand,” he said. “That is about the simplest definition I can think of. We aim at telling the public as clearly and simply as possible the excellent service that we can give.”

More than 26,000,000 passengers and 7,000,000 tons of goods were handled annually by the department, which also collected an annual revenue of about £8,000,000.

“We must tell the public,” the speaker declared. “The more patronage we get the better the services we can give, and as we advertise and get results, so do we improve and get more money to advertise again. It is a beneficent circle.”

Railways started about 100 years ago under practically monopolistic conditions, but more recently those conditions had been outgrown and with the development of commercial competition in transport, publicity had necessarily to be increased. “We recognise that we have to create confidence.” Mr. Stewart went on. “To impress that on the public mind, we have adopted a slogan ‘Safety, Comfort, Economy,’ and our posters depicting the idea are now well known.” SAFE TRAVELLING In the matter of safety the record held by the New Zealand railways was practically unbelievable. Out of 80,000,000 passengers carried during the past three and a-half years, not one had met with a fatality. Creating wants was the aim of railway publicity. “We want to make the people of New Zealand hunger and thirst after travel,” said Mr. Stewart. “Though we haven’t exactly reached that ideal yet, an increase of more than 200,000 passengers’ journeys was shown last year.” The railways showed an increase of £223,000 in revenue last year and 255,000 tons of goods more than in any other year, in addition to the increase of 200,000 in passenger journeys made. Moreover, the ratio of expenses to revenue received dropped by one per cent., which was very satisfactory. “We are not disturbed about competition,” Mr. Stewart concluded. “It gives a spirit of adventure that makes life interesting, and we are sure we can make our business the business that the public prefers.” A vote of thanks was accorded the speaker at the conclusion of his address. '