The Temuka Leader SATURDAY, APRIL 12, 1884. THE BEST ADVERTISING MEDIUM.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1164, 12 April 1884, Page 2

The Temuka Leader SATURDAY, APRIL 12, 1884. THE BEST ADVERTISING MEDIUM.

We have frequently been driven 10 the necessity of urging our claims to being the best advertising medium for this district. To do so is to us a very unpleasant work. It would have been much more agreeable to us if no necessity for pushing our claims existed, but when people take their advertisements out of the district, and pay more money for an article of inferior value to that which we can give them, we think we have a perfect right to lay the matter plainly before them. We have, on previous occasions, pointed out that the greatest successes that have been achieved in this district have resulted from advertising in the local paper only. We have now only to direct attention to the result of the polling for the Opihi Bridge, as a very telling instance of the necessity of advertising in this paper to insure due publicity. Out of all the ratepapers in the County of Geraldine only 77 vote® were recorded on the occasion of taking the poll for the loan asked for by the County Council to repair the Opihi Bridge. Can it be said that the people did not care whether the loan was obtained or pof 1 In the face of the Opihi Bridge being impassable, and the great inconvenience thus caused to the people of this district, we do not think that anyone will be so bold as to assert that the paucity of voters was due to want of interest in the matter. The fact is the people knew nothing at all about it. A letter was posted to us from Timaru in time to advertise the date and the polling places in the issue of this paper previous to the day of polling ; but it went astray in the Post Office and it did not reach us until next day. The consequence was that no intimation of it appeared in this paper, and that nobody knew anything at all about it. The Returning Officers at Terauka and Winchester will bear us out in that the usual expression of each voter as he came to the polling booth was : “ I did not hear of it until so and so told me this very moment,’’ The fact is that only for some one or two who took an interest in the matter and sent round word to the people, the number of votes recorded in Temuka would not have been half so large as it was. This was not due to carelessness or indifference, for the people of Temuka were afraid that the other districts would vote against the loan, and if they had known anything about it would have voted for it to a man. The fact is they did not, although the advertisement had appeared for two days beforehand in the Herald, and there was al Q o a paragraph in that paper calling attention to it. Now, what does this prove % Simply that the Herald is done as an advertising medium in this district, and that persons from this district merely waste their money by advertising in itAs a further proof of this, we have only to say that not long ago a certain auctioneer in this district sent us an advertisement of a sale. The letter miscarried in the post office, we did not get it in time, and the sale was so complete a failure that the auctioneer threatened to make us pay a certain sum as damages sustained by him through the advertisement not having appeared. Another auctioneer forgot to advertise a local sale on a recent occasion, there were not half-a-dozen people present, and the sale had to be abandoned. A certain firm in Terauka advertised in the Herald in 1882 and refused to acknowledge this paper at ail. In 1883, through some cause which need not be mentioned, they did not advertise in the Herald, hut spent their money on a large and well displayed notice in these papers. The result was that they sold nearly ten times as many of the article they advertised in 1883 as they did in 1882, when they advertised in the Herald. That firm is advertising with us at present and is not likely to change. _ With these facts—and many others which we cannot compress within the scope of this article—before us, is it to be wondered at if we feel annoyed at seeing the money which legitimately should have been spent with us thrown away on an outside valueless article. We give employment to eight persons, we have improved the papers to a degree that the people need not be ashamed of them, we give an earnest support to everything calculated to advance the place, and do everything in our power for the public good. Can any one say that this paper ever took up the wrong side for the purpore of pandering to the rich and powerful 1 There is no reason therefore that should debar the people from supporting us, but the one old superstition that wants to be got rid of, and that is that the Herald has the largest circulation. Plainly speaking,it has not, and those who depend upon it will find themselves mistaken. The secret is this—The timesare hard, and the people contentthemselves by taking the local paper only. It pays particular attention to their own district, it is more interesting to them Owing to its containing more extended reports of local matters, and they find it sufficient for their purposes. The Herald is a luxury which few can indulge in these hard times, and hence tbe superiority of this paper as an advertising medium. If all the money spent uselessly in advertising in Timaru were given to us we could bring this paper out every day, but until the people realise this wo cannot do so.