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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 5, Issue 3 (July 1, 1930)

Railway Publicity in South Africa — Publicity Manager's Retirement

page 20

Railway Publicity in South Africa
Publicity Manager's Retirement

Mr. A. H. Tatlow, who, for the past twenty years, has guided the publicity activities of the South African Railways Administration, retired on superannuation in May last. His work as Manager of the Publicity Department of the Railways, and Managing Editor of the “South African Railways and Harbours Magazine,” has been described as a “national achievement.” We have pleasure in publishing the following article (kindly supplied by Messrs. H. Miles and C. S. Stokes, of the Railways Publicity Department in South Africa), which gives some interesting particulars of the national significance of Mr. Tatlow's life's work for Publicity in South Africa.

A Flourishing Publicity Organisation

Mr A. H. Tatlow, who, in connection with South Africa's national publicity work is widely known from one end of the Union to the other, severed his active association with the Railway Service on 13th May.

Mr. Tatlow arrived in Natal in 1903, and entered the service of the Natal Government Railways. Thereafter he was, in large measure, the vital force behind the Garden Colony's initial publicity undertakings, being for several years largely responsible for the issue of the Natal Railways advertising literature, which included the Descriptive Guide and Official Handbook to Natal, published in 1911, and comprising some 600 pages. This volume has a prominent place on African and other library shelves.

In 1910, when Union came about, Mr. Tatlow was appointed manager of the South African Railways and Harbours Publicity Department, an office created by the amalgamation of the three railway systems, so that for twenty years he has been at the helm of this country's national publicity movement. During these two decades he has been prominently associated with particular publicity undertakings of considerable consequence, such as the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley, opened in 1924, when South Africa's exhibit created wide-spread interest of much benefit to this country. Mr. Tatlow was organising secretary in connection with the Union's display at that exposition, so that in no inappreciable measure the success of this country's representation was due to his efforts, first in South Africa, and later in London, where he remained, in a supervisory capacity, during the months that the Empire's products, attractions, and the like, were made known in Wembley's shop window, as it were.

Mr. A. H. Tatlow.

Mr. A. H. Tatlow.

Apart from the internal national advertising, a movement for making South Africa more widely known overseas, was instituted in 1914, but the intervention of the Great War delayed the launching of the campaign until 1920, when a South African Publicity Branch was opened in London by Mr. Tatlow, who went to England for the purpose.

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Spur to Publicity Enterprise.

Again in 1924 the Publicity Manager journeyed overseas, when he exhaustively explored the American tourist field, from the Atlantic Coast to the Pacific, as a consequence of which he was able to suggest that the Railway Administration commence active tourist propaganda work in the United States. The outcome of this recommendation was that a South African Publicity Bureau was established in New York in 1926. It should be noted that Mr. Tatlow had paid an earlier visit to America, in 1913, and had even then stimulated a good deal of interest in South Africa.

Interesting Exhibit at a Model Engineers' Exhibition in New Zealand. A view of the Roberts-Stewart-Roberts Railway exhibit at the New Zealand Society's Model and Experimental Engineers' Exhibition at Auckland. The Exhibition was visited by over 2,000 people. (Photo, W. W Stewart.)

Interesting Exhibit at a Model Engineers' Exhibition in New Zealand.
A view of the Roberts-Stewart-Roberts Railway exhibit at the New Zealand Society's Model and Experimental Engineers' Exhibition at Auckland. The Exhibition was visited by over 2,000 people.
(Photo, W. W Stewart.)

Springing from the inauguration of the overseas offices, the tourist traffic and tide of business visitors from both Europe and America have increased enormously, with the result that a very considerable sum of “new” money is put into circulation yearly in this country. On a conservative basis, it is estimated that an amount totalling £10,000,000 has been netted by South Africa in the last six years as a direct result of the publicity work carried out in Europe and America under the guidance of the Union's Publicity Manager.

It is perhaps in his role as the principal protagonist of municipal publicity that Mr. Tatlow's name has become most widely known and respected throughout South Africa. There is, one imagines, no corner of this country that he has not visited, and hardly a village into which he has not instilled the community publicity idea.

The annual Publicity Conferences that are now attended by delegates from the far corners of the Union, and even beyond, go to show with what success this laborious work has been rewarded. At the Publicity Conference held last November, Mr. Tatlow was unanimously elected an honorary life member, and was the recipient of valuable presentations, made by the delegates to Mr. and Mrs. Tatlow, as tokens of appreciation of the work Mr. Tatlow has so long and ably done in the interests of South Africa.

Another monument to Mr. Tatlow's keen efforts is the large and ever-growing collection of handbooks, through the medium of which the prospective holiday-maker, industrialist, or investor is able to obtain detailed and authentic information on every town of importance in South Africa.

When Mr. Tatlow first became associated with our publicity movement, municipal enterprise of this type was practically non-existent, and it is chiefly due to his endeavours that today we are able to call on a veritable library of well-compiled and illustrated booklets that compare most favourably with overseas productions of a similar character.

Those people, scattered throughout the country, who have listened to Mr. Tatlow's enthusiastically-delivered and instructive lectures, will realise, as well as any, just what a force the South African Railways and Harbours Publicity Department is now losing.

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S.A.R. and H. Magazine.

For twenty-five years, first as Editor and later as Managing Editor, Mr. Tatlow has guided and guarded the interests of the “South African Railways and Harbours Magazine,” which may well be described as a child of his brain. The journal was started by him in Natal in 1905, as an outcome of a Railwayman's Lecture and Debating Society, in which he was the moving spirit, and it has continued to make a monthly appearance ever since, although its title underwent a change in the early part of its existence.

When Childhood's Dreams Come True. (Photo, W. W. Stewart.) Mr. Jonas's interesting model locomotive shewn at the New Zealand Society's Model and Experimental Engineers' Exhibition, held recently in Auckland. (The driver, who looks fascinated with his charge, is Master Ken Jonas.)

When Childhood's Dreams Come True.
(Photo, W. W. Stewart.)
Mr. Jonas's interesting model locomotive shewn at the New Zealand Society's Model and Experimental Engineers' Exhibition, held recently in Auckland. (The driver, who looks fascinated with his charge, is Master Ken Jonas.)

To-day, the magazine is well to the fore, amongst monthly publications of like character (it is the world's largest of its kind), and, without the Administration being directly responsible, it acts as a Service organ throughout the country's transportation system, publishing matter calculated to be of educative value to its readers, which include many quite outside railway spheres, and also in other countries.

Details of the Administration's progress are disseminated through the journal's pages, and reports of the happenings and developments in overseas and other transportation circles are garnered and reported through the magazine. It provides what is an ideal medium for the publication of the General Manager's Bulletin, and through its South African travel articles, it influences its readers in the Union towards travel within their own country, and further directs the attention of overseas people to the wealth of attractions and possibilities that South Africa possesses.

When he retires, Mr. Tatlow will have controlled the publication of three hundred odd issues of the magazine—for special numbers have commemorated certain outstanding happenings in our history—and it is questionable whether any other individual person in South African journalistic circles can claim such a record, of which the subject of this tribute may very justifiably be proud.

The retiring Publicity Chief has done a great deal for the cause of the poster artist in this country, for he has consistently influenced municipalities and other public bodies to advertise the amenities of their respective places through the media of pictorial designs exhibited on hoardings. Thus, pictorial poster art has developed considerably in the Union during the last decade or two.

Commercial Activities.

Nor must reference be omitted to the extensive and important commercial branches of the Railway Publicity Department. The chain of railway bookstalls extends to all parts of the Union, and vast quantities of books, periodicals, and newspapers are handled annually by this large off-shoot of the departmental activities. As Manager of the Publicity organisation, Mr. Tatlow has, of course, controlled the operation of the bookstalls, and has been further responsible for the multifarious advertising undertaken page 23 by the Railway Administration. This advertising has a place in railway time-tables, telephone directories, and other publications, and is especially prominent on the widespread hoardings of the State-owned transportation system.

In connection with these commercial activities it is interesting to note, for example, that travellers approaching Capetown are enabled to purchase, while on the train, copies of newspapers, and this system has been put into operation throughout the Union. To illustrate the practice, due to the Railway Publicity Department's organisation, copies of papers are rushed out of the latter city by the earliest available train in the morning or evening, and so greet railway passengers travelling seaward, while they are still many miles distant from Capetown.

As regards the poster and show-case advertising. South Africans can take a particular pride in what the Publicity Department has done for them in these directions, and widely-travelled persons often declare that the advertising on Capetown station is, in attractiveness, equal to any to be found in far older countries. The Publicity Department likewise controls the large number of sweetmeat and other automatic machines on railway stations throughout the Union, so that there, too, Mr. Tatlow has been called on to give an ever-watchful eye.

About the end of May, Mr. and Mrs. Tatlow sailed for England and the Continent, and will be away from South Africa for about six months. It is their intention to settle in Capetown, and Mr. Tatlow has already been elected to the executive of the Cape Peninsula Publicity Association, to which body his wise counsels and wide experience will be of great assistance.

A gathering in honour of Mr. and Mrs. Tatlaw, and organised by the committee of the S.A.R. and H. Magazine and the staff of the Railway Publicity Department, was held at Railway Headquarters, Johannesburg, on the evening of Monday, 12th May. The function was very largely attended, and opportunity was then taken of making presentations, as mementoes of esteem, to the retiring Publicity Manager, and Mrs. Tatlow.

In concluding this appreciation, it is appropriate to remark on the very happy relationships which have always existed between Mr. Tatlow and the large staff of his Department, and it is certain that none will more keenly regret the Publicity Manager's retirement from official life than will the personnel of the Railway Publicity Department.

On the Way to New Zealand's Geyserland. (Photo, W. W. Stewart.) The new Auckland-Rotorua “Limited Express” entering the Parnell tunnel, about one mile from Auckland City.

On the Way to New Zealand's Geyserland.
(Photo, W. W. Stewart.)
The new Auckland-Rotorua “Limited Express” entering the Parnell tunnel, about one mile from Auckland City.

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“The natural destiny of New Zealand is to become one of the chief playgrounds of the world.” —Sir James Barrett, Melbourne. (Govt. Publicity photo.) A party of tourists on the majestic Franz Josef Glacier, South Westland, New Zealand.

“The natural destiny of New Zealand is to become one of the chief playgrounds of the world.” —Sir James Barrett, Melbourne.
(Govt. Publicity photo.)
A party of tourists on the majestic Franz Josef Glacier, South Westland, New Zealand.