DEARER CORN BROOMS

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 784, 6 April 1910, Page 8

DEARER CORN BROOMS

SHORTAGE IN THE MILLET CORPS. ; A. PECULIAE POSITION. Corn blooms (or carpet brooms, as they_ are, better known in the house) are to be dearer in price. A conference of corn-broom manufacturers, sitting in Wellington, has decided that on and after to-day the price of brooms must be substantially increased. The generaj assumption on the.part of the public is that corn brooms are quite an insignificant item in the equipment of a household, yet it. would be a novelty to find one without one or two brooms of the class mentioned —which means.. that tbo ; manufacture of that very- essential household, article constitutes a big industry somewhere. are jio corn-broom factories in Wellington, but there are two in Auckland, one in Christchurch, and one in Dunedin.... The shortage in the millet crops is the cause of the rise in price. The' American crop for broom-making, uormaUy from 60,01)0 to 70,000 tons, has this season to 15,000 tons,' and this- is . being ■ fell all over the world.. The result is that instead of the price being £25 per ton in America, it has reached £60 per ton, and the price of corn brooms in America, has risen from one dollar to a dollar' and a half. Consequent upon the American shortage of good Woom millet, the stocks of 1 Italy, Hungary, and Aus-' tralia are being drawn upon by the rest of the world. This is" the first' season on record that Australia, has found a market for this commodity beyond its own shores,.,but this year it is shipping freely to America and Soutr. Africa, one result : being , that several broom factories in- Australia have closed up, being unable to, compete with the buyers; for oversea manufacturers.