BRITISH TRADE EXHIBITION.

Taranaki Daily News, 25 June 1917, Page 6

BRITISH TRADE EXHIBITION.

This may seem an unsuitable time for an exhibition of British goods in-this ■Dominion, but the British Trade Commissioner has acted wisely in accepting the offer of the promoters of the Jlawera Show for space for such a display. The experiment will be an interesting one, for we believe it is the first time in the history of agricultural shows in New -.Zealand that there has been an organised exhibition of British manufactured goods. It is perhaps a little strange that nothing should have been done before to take advantage of such fine advertising conditions as agricultural shows provide, especially as private firms selling foreign as well as British and local gbods are pushing business more and more at. shows. In fact, the primary object of shows, the exhibition of stock and produce, is being challenged in .popular favor by trade and business exhibits, and there is hardly a better way of reaching the public by means of an exhibition that by displaying goods at these gatherings. Mr. Dalton, the British Trade Commissioner, in spite of the great difficulties of getting delivery of ( many classes of British goods, has arranged an exhibition in which the goods of from 60 to 80 British manufacturers will bo exhibited-';:by some thirty firms. The promoters v tlie show are waking the British tra%;exhibition the special feature of the fehow, ami during Spow week the retailers of Haweya eided to bold an? all-British their windows. Tliis is a small beginning to what may" bebig .this exhibition is a success we may-ex-meet similar displays at the metropolitan shows. After the war there will probably be many trade displays, ranging from this sort of thing to inter-Im-perial exhibitions. The Dominion Commission found a general feeling in Britain and the Dominions ift favor of inter.■Tmperial exhibitions as a means of promoting Imperial trade, and the' eommis■sion therefore recommended that at J;he, •first opportunity such exhibitions should be organised in the Dominions. In the -meantime good will -result fi*om such a modest effort as this Hawera display. Jt will not only advertise the particular goods displayed, but it will turn thought .to the question of supporting trade within the Empire, and call attention to the vast manufacturing resources of the Mother Country.—Auckland Star. t