The Daily News. THURSDAY, JULY 18, 1912. SHODDY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 51, 18 July 1912, Page 4

The Daily News. THURSDAY, JULY 18, 1912. SHODDY.

Mr. F. M. B. Fisher is evidently anxious to justify his inclusion in the Ministry, and despite the chameleon-like character of his polities he certainly does ppssess a capacity for work in the profession of politics that he has adopted. Of course he is a little hit picturesque and playing to the gallery in his announcement that in future the Government advertising will he conducted on business principles and not on party ones. Th.e suggestion of cheap graft in this connection made against the late Government had no foundation in fact, as the figures which were repeatedly published proved Miat the Government advertising was extremely evenly distributed where it would do most good, and the balance of

payment lay, if anything, in favor of journals that were opposed to the party in power. Mr. Fisher's latest manifesto on this subject is simply a somewhat undignified brandishing of the bristles of the new broom ■with which he intends to sweep clean, and it would have saved his dignity had he not paraded this particular political mud-pie in his first batch of newly-baked tarts. But he is on more commendable ground when he suggests the appointment of an extra official on the High Commissioner's staff in London, whose duty it will be to assist the Customs Department in the prevention of the; exportation to the Dominion of shoddy goods, manufactured abroad and fraudulently labelled, for purely commercial purposes, as ''made in England." The public in the Dominion are quite prepared to buy Belgian cutlery if it is marked as "Sheffield made" and "English" tools that are made in Flanders, whilst cheap German clothing is perfectly satisfactory so long as its attached tag suggests that it is the product of the West of England. What the eye does not see the heart proverbially does not grieve for, and an unsuspecting public goes cheerfully on its way paying through the nose for a cheap and inferior article which has no more connection with its ostensible ?Wgin than a German sausage has with Germany, or the average champagne has with the vintages of France, or the Dutch cheese has with the fiats of Holland. Had Shakespeare lived to-day ho would have had to revise his sentiment that "a rose by any other name would smell as sweet," for if any enterprising florist were to lube! his roses as onions a horrified public would elect to believe him and refuse to buy them. It is a quaint kink in the character of the ordinary man or woman that induces them to pay for a name irrespective of quality. We know that our Canterbury mutton is bought rejoicingly at Home as "best Southdown," and that our Taranaki butter and cheese masquerade as "superior Danish," and we naturally resent the

shoddy foreign-manufactured articles under the "belief that they are the product of the best British markets. The coun-' try has already made a most emphatic protest against the fraudulent labelling of our own produce at Home, but we have been singularly indifferent to the fact that we are purchasing goods under exactly similar circumstances here. If Mr. Fisher's suggested agent can remedy this abuse, even partially, his appointment would be more than justified in the interests not only of the consumer, but of the labor market both at Home and in the Dominion.