by frog
This week is the 76th anniversary of the Esther James beginning her walk from one end of New Zealand to the other; the first recorded person to have completed this feat. And she made this walk, from Kaitaia to Bluff and then across Stewart Island, to promote kiwi made goods. James was also New Zealand’s first fashion model and made the entire journey modeling only New Zealand made clothing. She was bombarded with attention, autograph hunters and media coverage, including interviews on every single New Zealand radio station (there were eight at the time). Along the way she was encouraged and helped by many others including ‘Wizard’ Smith the racing car driver, Lord Bledisloe the Governor General, Gordon Coates the Prime Minister and Jack Lovelock, the athlete.
Near the end of her walk, in Bluff, a civic reception and dance in her honour was held. She was whisked on to the dance floor by a ‘dashing young stranger’ who said:
‘I’ve come all the way from Gore to see this big hiking woman. I bet she’s built like an Amazon, eight feet tall with feet the size of a draught horse.’
Straight after the dance James was required to give a speech
‘Some people,’ I said, ‘imagine that to walk all this way I must be a huge girl with big feet. But you can see that I am not. I weigh seven stone and take size three in shoes. You see, in New Zealand-made goods, it’s the quality that counts not the size.’
At that my blushing partner turned around and left the hall.
(Extract from James’ autobiography, Jobbing Along, Whitcombe and Tombs, 1965, p81)
Hat tip to John Barleycorn who drew my attention Esther James’ story last year.
Published in Economy, Work, & Welfare | Society & Culture by frog on Thu, December 6th, 2007
Tags: buy kiwi made, Esther James, walking
on the trolls and those who are unable to keep on topic
Well done but how about getting people to buy NZ made goods by actually making them worth buying rather then running big add campaigns and power walks.
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Really Nick? The main problem is trying to find something made here, not it’s quality.
Been to the Warehouse and bought any quality made Chinese goods lately? When you walk out the door the timer is ticking on how long until they hit landfill or down cycling. Hey but they are cheap right?
When we got married, a lot of our presents came from the Warehouse and none lasted past ten years. At the same time we were given a second hand frying pan from my parents. It is still going. I discovered it had been given to them as a wedding present. Nz quality?
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So Nick, in a previous comment you said that Australians were patriotic in their shopping and whether a product is Aussie made will influence their purchasing decisions, but you said that NZers are not patriotic and don’t care about buying NZ made.
So, how come you are against the ad campaign? What other way is there to make NZers more patriotic in their purchasing decisions? I’d be glad to hear your suggestions on how to achieve that. Also, what are your suggestions on how to make NZ goods more worth buying?
P.S. As far as I am aware the govt’s Buy Kiwi Made campaign doesn’t involve organising any power walks so I find that part of your criticism a bit strange.
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I think he was referring to the post
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The sad truth is that the Greens are not really interested in the “Buy NZ made” campaign. My idea was dismissed at local branch meetings, it went down like a lead balloon, and we now need to wait another 24 years for the centenary.
Things have gone backwards, because in 1931 the response was nation-wide and ecstatic. But that was on account of a stimulus – the depression. Incidentally, I have Esther’s original log, signed by mayors, manufacturers and dignatories across the country. In those days (and I am her contemporary and have correspondence from her) it was possible to walk the length of NZ wearing, eating and using only NZ-made goods. Not even Jap cars or Middle East oil. Probably no-one today would have the stamina, let alone health.
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What idea was that John?
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Scott: The one of the reasons people dont buy Kiwi made products is because they are too expensive, and people would clearly rather buy the cheap ones then the quality ones. The reason they are too expensive is because we have thigns like a high minimum wage and too many workplace codes and laws which companies have to comply with. If we want to be competitive the best way is to engage in some degree of price competition. It shouldn’t be too hard as goods have to travel a long way to get here.
Stuey: I am against the add campaign as it is a waste of money, and it will not change people spending patterns, you cant change a national attitude with a few adds on t.v. There is no quick fix to our patriotism problem, and it occurs for many reasons. Our politicians need to stop behaving like New Zealand is nothing special, John Howard was known for his patriotism. Maybe we need to sing the national anthem more, put a bigger flag on the beehive (dont know if you live in Wellington but its tiny). We probably need to push that attitude in our schools more as well.
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Though in turn the reason China’s stuff is so cheap is because of the fact that workers are only allowed to join ‘government approved’ unions, and the sweatshops etc…It is all well and good saying ‘we have too much regulation’ (we possibly do) but that seems to be a perpetual generalisation more than anything from anyone on the ‘right’. I suppose Hide’s Regulatory Responsibility bill might do someting about that, but who knows where that’s at…
Maybe we need to change the flag! If nothing else, that would get people fired up, whether they agreed with a change or not. Isn’t pushing a political idea in schools social engineering?
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At least the roads Esther walked on were all made in New Zealand. That wouldn’t be entirely true today, the Auckland Harbour Bridge was made in England and assembled in New Zealand.
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“Maybe we need to change the flag! If nothing else, that would get people fired up, whether they agreed with a change or not. Isn’t pushing a political idea in schools social engineering?”
The Aussies have a similar flag and it doesnt seem to do them any harm. And as for whether patriotism is schools is social engineering, well duh of course it is. But I think on a bi-partisan concensus becuase the left want us all to buy NZ made goods and the right are patriotic anyway. I think it will be good also for a number of reasons. First of all people will be more likely to buy NZ made. Second people are less likely to leave overseas. Thirdly installing a sense of loyalty to ones country can only be good for a child, it works in the U.S.
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Well yeah a flag doesnt do any harm (unless our ancestors were all colonised and crushed, whereas most NZers came in after the crushing). I just thought regarding SE that there seemed to be a blanket disapproval of anything regarded as SE (but maybe thats just SE of a ‘progressive’ nature).
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Stephen I think in most cases SE is bad when there are two relativly non extreme sides to can arguement. For example teaching kids that violence is not acceptable in schools ould be considered SE but only anarcists like Valarie Morse would actually say that violence is acceptable. In the case of patriotism I think it is a value which it would be very beneficial to the country if more people had, can you show me a downside to patriotism? The only ideology i can think of that would say that patiotism is a bad thing would be Marxism, however even in the USSR during WW2 they activly encouraged it.
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So if there are two relatively non-extreme sides to an argument (e.g. civil unions yes/no) the answer would be the status quo? That might actually be some sort of ‘passive’ social engineering, not sure. Yeah again im just a bit sick of the blanket disapproval of SE – its what governments do! To what extent would obviously be the bone of contention.
I know what you mean with patriotism (like you said, the US is an example and I have heard that cited as why they dont have the European problem with unruly ghettos of immigrants). I can’t think of any that actively discourage patriotism, but I can think one that encouraged it very heavily: Fascism! Where the interests of the individual and general society come second to that of the state, the cult of tradition, rejection of modernism, cult of action for action’s sake, life is lived for struggle, fear of difference, rejection of disagreement, contempt for the weak, cult of masculinity and machismo, qualitative populism, appeal to a frustrated majority, obsession with a plot, illicitly wealthy enemies, education to become a hero,
…just from the Wikipedia entry.
Another downside would, I suppose, would be the US Patriot Act
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The thing is in the U.S. you can name a bill whatever you want to make it sound good. The patriot act really has nothing to do with patriotism, the debate around it is more the saftey vs freedom debate. Also I dont think it is terribly hard to avoid facisism when practising patriotism, for example one of the values in U.S. patriotism is freedom and limited government (one of the ironies of the ‘patriot act’, although the counter-arguement is that freedom isnt free). Certainly no one would argue that patriotism equals facism.
Also when we are talking about two relativly non-extreme positions being a condition in which to avoid any SE, that doesnt necessarily favour the status quo. It just means avoiding the issue and letting the public make up their own minds.
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Slightly off topic but oh well. Yeah I know what the Patriot Act was about – all ‘patriots’ would vote for it.
Avoiding the issue would be the status quo – but I spose you mean going for a binding referendum instead of leaving all the power with parliament and ‘conscience votes’ etc.
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Scott: The one of the reasons people dont buy Kiwi made products is because they are too expensive, and people would clearly rather buy the cheap ones then the quality ones. The reason they…..
Before you went off on the rant you were on solid territory; Kiwis buy on price, not on value, so they would (as a generalisation) rather have cheaper, poorer goods, than more expensive better goods. Large parts of the Kiwi psyche seem not to understand the meaning of “value”. And, being as how incomes in NZ are low (and without the minimum wage legislation, wouold probably be lower) you can understand that logic.
In any sort of real world, if the desire is to produce the cheapest, shoddiest goods, then countries like New Zealand (and the USA, and the countries of Europe) can’t win that battle, and it would insane of us/them to even try. The only long-term way to prosperity is through adding value, every decent businessman understands that truth. We can’t try and underprice the cheapest produced goods in the world. We are (and need to be) better than that. We also can’t do an Australia and simply sell stuff we dig up.
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dbuckley I agree with some of what you are saying, however there are some things we can do to at, least to a certain extent engage in price competition. First of all there is too much regulation of bussiness in New Zealand. As you say most NZ bussiness men want to make quality goods regardless of the law, so why do we need these regulations which mearly increase the cost of production. Secondly wages should be determined by the market, not a high minimum wage. Our current one is too high, and there are also too many workplace laws which favour employees. We need to remember also that these goods have to travel from overseas, and so that adds to the costs of the foriegn goods.
However I agree that we cant win outright in price competition. The answer is to try, but ultimatly recognise that in an international free market we should play to our strengths. The Chinese can make many goods cheaper then us, so we should focus on what we are able to sell in large quantities to make up our balance of payments.
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A very late response, I just found this article whilst googling for Esther James.
She was my Grandmother. She was very much ahead of her time and achieved some pretty amazing things for a woman in that era, but please don’t be fooled by her book “Jobbing Along.” It is the most ego-centric autobiography I have ever read in my life, her 2 husbands, children and their families are all but ignored so she could write about how great she was. And she wasn’t a particularly nice person to her family.And a fair bit of the book isn’t accurate. The NZ encyclpeadia of biography is far more accurate.
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John, if you are a contemporary of Esther James — how old are you? Esrher was about 31 when she made her walk — which means that if she was alive today she would be 108!
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