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JAJUUAUV 22,
1921
11
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
Conditions in the Australian Trade
F. Owen French, of Sydney, Reviews Existing Conditions in the Music Trade in Australia and New Zealand and Shows
How the American Manufacturer Must Put Forth Greater Efforts to Retain the Foothold He Has Gained
for Himself and for American Pianos and Players During the Past Few Years
IF. Owen French, the writer of the following survey of
trade conditions in Australia and New Zealand, is well
known to the piano men of the United States, and is
recognized as being well qualified by experience to speak
authoritatively upon the music trade situation and prospects
in the Antipodes. Mr. French has for a number of years
represented the Jesse French & Sons Piano Co. in Australia
and New Zealand, and has on previous occasions given to
American piano manufacturers generally the benefit of his
advice. His present article is most important and timely.
—EDITOR. |
The retail piano and player-piano trade in
Australia and New Zealand has held together
remarkably well. Natural trade conditions have
been good. These two sections of the great Brit-
ish Empire are essentially agricultural, and while
in Australia the crops the last couple of seasons
have by no means been records, yet prices have
been high. In the sheep and wool districts
drought conditions did prevail to a serious ex-
tent, and many thousands of sheep and cattle
perished. That spell broke about six months
ago and great areas of wheat were planted; as a
result, a wonderful crop is now being harvested.
In many districts it is a record as to acreage
yield and quantity. The agricultural prospects
for Australia and New Zealand are very bright
and even though general trade conditions may
slump we still have our earth, and our crops
and herds producing abundantly.
In Australia we expect to have an exportable
surplus of wheat amounting in value to two
hundred million dollars and two hundred and
twenty-five million dollars' worth of wool. But-
ter exports are expected to exceed in value
twenty-five million dollars, and we have meat,
hides, tallow, bacon, metals, timber, coal, fruits
(preserved and dried), wines and other resources
of great national wealth. The savings bank
balances are showing regular and substantial in-
creases and the savings of the people represent a
world's record per capita. There is no great in-
dividual wealth, but the money is well dis-
tributed and there is no poverty.
At this immediate time there is a little tight-
ening of the money market: a natural result
after days of unbridled spending and prosperity.
This, however, is a good thing, as there has
been a tendency for industrial conditions to get
out of control, and the only remedy seems to be
"hard times." When men have to look longer
for work, and work harder when they get it, and
business men have to look longer and work
harder to get their share of trade, there will be
saner and sounder reasoning and better meth-
ods. When things come too easy we go to
seed, and work is just as necessary to a healthy
body as a healthy business. There has been
too much of the '"take-it-or-leave-it" attitude.
According to statistics the Australians and
the New Zealanders are- the most musical peo-
ple in the world, that is if you can judge by the
fact that there are more pianos per capita than
in any other part of the world. Our Govern-
ment is doing all in its power to advance music
by the establishment of a Government Conser-
vatorium of Music to assist in musical educa-
tion and in all the public schools of the coun-
try the theory of music is taught.
Offering Quality, Service and Price
With the mind of the people thinking music
and with the great natural wealth of the coun-
try it is safe to say there are no better markets
in the world for pianos and player-pianos than
Australia and New Zealand. The point is: Who
is going to have these markets? It is the coun-
try that can give the most for the money—
Quality—Service—Price.
The Germans practically had these markets
to themselves, and, to give them their due, they
deserved it, for they had a true understanding
of quality, service, price. The impression they
made in these markets, not only with the dealers,
but with the purchasing public, has been so deep
and lasting that the demand to-day for Ger-
man goods is almost as incessant as it was in
pre-war days, in spite of the bloody war and the
hatred engendered thereby. To-day the mar-
F. Owen French
ket in Australia is closed to them, for no Ger-
man goods will be admitted into either New
Zealand or Australia. But it can only be a
matter of time when there will be an open door
as in pre-war days. The Japs had a good open-
ing here for the cheaper grades and made a really
good start with most creditable instruments.
The case work and the polish were excellent,
in fact, better than the average cheap instrument
on the market to-day. However, they failed on
the finer points of piano construction—tone, ac-
tion, touch, etc. Their greatest failure, how-
ever, has been in commercial integrity, and
while one shipment would be up to the mark
the next lot would be a lot of "duds," and so
unreliable have been Japanese goods that they
have lost pretty nearly all the export business
they had gained in these parts.
The Thing Is to Hold the Trade
In all these years of war and to the present
time American
manufacturers
have been
streaming goods into these markets, and it
would be natural to suppose that if the quality
of the goods and service rendered was as it
should be the Germans would be forgotten.
Trade conditions in America are getting such
that a real good, clean export trade would be
most acceptable, but what have the manufac-
turers done to really create and deserve these
great foreign markets? With exceptions, many
have done considerable damage to foreign mar-
kets and have lowered the prestige and esteem
of American goods and American traders.
We of America have boasted about our won-
derful gain in the growth of our exports, but I
assure you it is fictitious to the extent that the
real gain can only be estimated on what is main-
tained. If we have had the markets of the world
open to us, with every opportunity to get our
goods well established, then can't hold that
market when we have to compete with the rest
of the exporting world, we have failed miser-
ably. After all the export trade that we have
had has been a case of delivering the goods, not
selling them.
Export trade is a study and it can't be done
from a desk in New York alone. The manufac-
turer must study his market with the thorough-
ness that the astronomer does the heavens. He
uiust know every detail of it; must organize for
it; must go for it. His organization must be
thorough, his goods of the same even standard,
with a tendency to improvement right along the
line. Nothing should leave the factory unless it
measures up 100 per cent perfect to the stand-
ard set for the style. Inspection should be most
rigid and complete.
It was the German's understanding of detail
and thoroughness that captured the world's
markets, and it is in these points that the Ameri-
can is going to fail unless seen to. What is the
good of mass production and whirlwind trade
for a season? It is the regular, even trade, year
in and year out, that makes the solid organiza-
tion which can withstand any panic. The great
thing about export trade, when well established,
is that it is regular and clean. You get your
orders a year in advance with regular shipping
instructions, so you know just where you are all
the time. It is clean, sweet business, and you
must get in tune with it and play to it or you
don't deserve to have it.
The English Making Progress
The English manufacturer in the past has been
very conservative, but has learned a lot from the
war. The rapidity with which England is put-
ting her financial house in order has astonished
the world. To show to some extent the revival
of British industries, in March last the exports
were worth £122,000,000, approximately six
hundred million dollars of strictly British goods.
Dun's Review of August says: "That the United
Kingdom has been able to maintain and even to
increase to new high levels its imports, in spite
of heavy foreign debts, adverse exchange rates
and preponderant adverse trade balances ac-
cumulated since 1914, speaks well for the fore-
sight, courage and resourcefulness (on which
in the final analysis a nation's future depends)
of British merchants as a whole."
The British manufacturer will win his way
back to these markets by his solidity and thor-
oughness. The close conservativeness has been
broken by the war. Take the little matter of
celluloid keys—those made in America are the
worst in the world. The quality of the ivorine
or celluloid is excellent, but the finished key is
a disgrace. The space between looks as though
the cutting might have been done with a wood-
man's saw, and there is no attempt at smoothing
of the edges. The English celluloid key is beau-
tifully finished, quite as well as the best Ameri-
can ivory key. The edges are neatly beveled
and smoothed, they are accurately cut, well bal-
anced and in every way a first-class key. It
matters not whether the American manufac-
turer likes his own style better, the foreign mar-
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