The Voice of Commerce.

It had been said that Transportation represented the arteries of commerce. If this were so, then publicity was its voice (applause), and according as publicity was able to make that voice sound in dulcet tones—pleasing to the people—so could be gauged the measure of its success. It had a technical duty to construct its message with the best sounding phrases, and at the same time a moral responsibility for doing the right thing by the public.

The development of publicity in recent years had been so great that its effect had been revolutionary in character, and, as with all revolutions, its moral effect was what would determine its true place in history.

Railways in their earlier stages represented a form of commercial life that partook of the nature of a monopoly, or quasi-monopoly, in regard to certain classes of transportation. In that condition the need for publicity was not either pressing or obvious. The general rule applied to them as to other monopolies. As the development of alternative means of transport took place, the monopoly aspect became less and less, and the importance of publicity in relation to them grew in inverse ratio.

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Twenty years ago the New Zealand Railways constituted a quasi-monopoly. They had entered upon an altogether new phase now. In their publicity work they had to go forward without precedent, to conceive ideas and make experiment upon a large scale, and this all had to be done in a very brief period and in a time of very disturbed conditions.

“We have now,” said Mr. Sterling, “come to realise what advertising means to us. We have had to tell the public what we have to sell to get them interested in our operations, to tell them how the whole business of railroading is worked and to explain to the public the service which it is our function to provide.

“To do this we have adopted various means, and have constituted a Specialist Department in that connection. We have busied ourselves in this work to the full extent of our means. It has been an uphill fight, as it nearly always is when any new thing associated with any public service is required.