NEW ZEALAND MANUFACTURES.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 172, 25 March 1915, Page 4

NEW ZEALAND MANUFACTURES.

The representatives of the chief movers for the institution of a Board of Trade, the Canterbury Industrial Association, charge the | people of New Zealand with be--1 ing prejudiced against all goods made in the DomiiPon. Bools were the actual subject of the remark, and leading boot retailers in Auckland very soon left no doubt about the Christchurch man’s use of' terms and they showed clearly that discrimination rather than prejudice is what lie ought’ to have complained about, if anything. Several other Auckland retailors said that the people a few years ago would insist upon having imported boots; the Colonial-made boots had good material in them but their style and finish were simply laughable. What we want to point out is that if New Zealanders want industries of that kind they must be prepared to put in machinery and employ the experts that are necessary to compete with goods coming from an outside source. The men who were engaged in many of onr manufactures wore, as a rule, ever complaining at labour receiving paternal consideration from the Government, but were it not for the assistance they were ever appealing to the State for while they were turning out an unsaleable article, their factories would long ago have been closed.

It is true that New Zealanders were, and are, discriminating, but wo have not been able to discover any evidence to support the charge of prejudice. Boot factories have altered the standard of their products and have brought them up to the level of factories in boot exporting countries, with the exception of the lightest and most fashionable class of goods, and the result has been that New Zealand boots are often purchased in preference to the imported. To show that New Zealanders will not have a clumsy, ill-made article thrust upon them it is only necessary to refer to New Zea-land-made hats. If we haven't the experts here to establish a successful factory it should be possible to get a few from Liege, where some of the best and most comfortable hats purchasable were recently made. Because a customer preferred an imported article to one made in New Zealand a few years ago, he was not necessarily prejudiced, and that is amply proved by the fact that since a better class article has been obtainable the demand has very materially lessened importations.