FOOTWEAR INSPECTION

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 112, 5 February 1919, Page 4

FOOTWEAR INSPECTION

REGULATIONS ENQUIRE' STRENGTHENING. . Under tho Footwear Inspection Act, it is- required that where, the eoles of boots or shoes (outer and inner) and the heels do not consist entirely of leather, the soles shall be branded with a description of the materials of which they are composed. This does not apply to rubber outsolee, or to the heels of ladies' fane/ or evening footwear if they consist of wood or celluloid, and it should be understood that the fillings between the two soles may consist of leather skiving's or any other material as this Is used merely to fill up space. An officer of the Labour Department, whose inspectors of footwear administer the Act, informed our representative yesterday that,cases had come under notice where certain imported shoe 3 contained insoles of small pieces of leather (called skivings); worked up into a mass. This' material, being leather, did not require branding' under the Act, and yet) was of very inferior quality, coming to pieces immediately it became wet. Apparently an amendment to the Act was needed to provide that the soles should consist of "solid leather to escape the branding requirement. ' The inspectorof/foohray expressed the opinion that buyers of boots would bo better advised to purchase New.Zealandmade boots, as on the whole better value could be thus'obtained. The methods and appliances for boot-making in tew Zealand had improved considerably during later years, so that there was no reason why imported boot* should be superior. .