DEAR LEATHER

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2953, 16 December 1916, Page 8

DEAR LEATHER

PRICE OF BOOTS MAY RISE.

A deputation that waited upon the Acting-Prime Minister ; . (the Hon. J. Allen) at Dunedin. this week urged that the. Government, should commandeer all hides in tho Dominion, paying for them at tho 1915 rates, and supply them to tanners • and the export. trade as required. /This arrangement, tlTo deputation urged, would- prevent the iutlation of prices,. and\ would save the tanning industry, whicli ivas being endangered by the high prices of raw materials. Tlie representative of tlie tanners told the Minister that the quantity of hides kept, back -in the Dominion was not sufficient eveii for tho military work, and that tho prices were "intolerable." • ?

Tho shortage of leather, particularly of the higher grades; .is being/'felt locally, and manufacturers state that if present prices are maintained another big advancci in the cost-of boots to tho general public is inevitable. Tlie export of sole-leather from the United Kingdom has been prohibited, and the New Zealand, boot factories are • dependent ,npon American supplies and the product of the/Dominion tanneries. The American -sole-leather. costs over 2s. per pound mpre than it did prior to the outbreak of war, supplies are not easily obtainable, and the prices tend to rise still further. Tho local tanneries a're handicapped by heavy increases in the prices of tanning materials and' by. a shortage of hides, due to the' attractive export, prices.

A retailer told a Dominion reporter yesterday that the' increases made in the retail prices of boots and shoes, since' August,: 1914, amounted already to as much as 50 per cent, on some lines.. ; Inferior leathers appeared • to haye advanced mire, proportionately, than the better qualities,, and so the cheaper footwear showed relatively the biggest advances. Be had to charge 12s. . 6d. for "a shoe-that lie had sold at-Bs. 6d. before the war.- Children's boots of a kind used widely had advanced from os'.'to9s. 6d. -A superior boot .that had been retailed 26s.tbefore, the war/now cost'3ss.": The retailer added that he understood the manufacturers contemplated advancing wholesale prices,' owing to'rises in their own costs, and in that case th« public would, have to pay more again.