RETAIL DRAPERY TRADE

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2263, 24 September 1914, Page 3

RETAIL DRAPERY TRADE

TENDING BACK TO NORMAL. Mr. Thos. Bush presided at a special meeting of the Wellington Retail Drapers' Association held on Tuesday morning to discuss trade conditions generally as.they have bean affected by the influence of the war now raging in Europe. During an interesting discussion the opinion was generally expressed by the heads of some of the principal drapery firms of central Wellington that the. present conditions in New Zealand did not warrant any reductions of staff or. curtailment of business activity. There had been, it was time, a mild panic during the first week or two of the war, but the public had quickly got over f.hat_ and finding things with; themselves going on pretty well as usual, they had resumed their ordinary habits cf life, with the result that business was tending back to normal once more. With the splendid prices that our produco must realise during the approaching season, it was not at all likely that New Zealand would suffer by tho v.'ar, aid knowing this the members of the association decided that there were no cogent reasons why staffs should be reduced and ■■unemployment , fostered. It was mentioned with regret that one or two houses had reduced staffs, and in some cases salaries in the slight panic which followed the declaration of war. Indeed it was said that there had been breaches of the Arbitration Court award (shop assistants, which the union itself had deemed it expedient not to notice) which should never have been committed i in the interest of the community as a whole. At the same time tho meeting was of opinion that the trade was really in the hands of the public, and so long as "they kept up their pecker," so to speak, spent ordinarily, and met their obligations, there need be no alteration in the manner in which tho retail trade was conducted in Wellington, and no curtailment in the staffs employed. An idea had got about that the prices of goods were to be increased. That was not so. Some of . the summer season's stock was landed when the war broke out, and the whole of it was on the water then, eo that the suggestion of any inflation in prices was entirely erroneous. Later on it might bo found necessary to increase the prices of certain lines directly affected by tho war, but at present the new season's goods would be sold at the ordinary prices. It was decided to make an announcement by advertisement to the public. This will appear in to-morrows Dominion.