A DIFFICULT PROBLEM

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 155, 26 March 1919, Page 8

A DIFFICULT PROBLEM

CLOTHING THE RETURNED

SOLDIER

The paying off of thousands of men per month, from tho New Zealand Expeditionary Force is creating many a. little problem that docs not reach tho public car immediately. One of theso problems concerns tho fitting out of returned soldiers with "civvy" clothing after their sojourn abroad in khaki. Supplies of ready-made clothing and tweed from overseas are now vary short,' and those coming forward aro skimped in quantity and high-priced, so New Zealand has practically lo reclothe her returned soldiers with clothes made from her own cloth and made up within tho Dominion. Consequently at the presont time the mills all over the country are going full time turning out tweeds and worsteds as fast as they can. They cannot cope with the military and civil idemand, and admit to-day that tho demand for good ready-made'suits by far exceeds tho supply coming from the mills and factories. The reason is very simple. The Hororata and Athenic arrived within a week with nearly 2500 men, and those men are paid off somewhere about the same time. Then they have to get back into civilian life, and the first thing the ordinary man wants is a couple of suits of clothes, one for tho week-days and the other for "best." That, means that 5000 suits are wanted practically as the result of the arrival of two big transports. At tho present time there are nine vessels on the water with troops lor New Zealand. They will begin lo pour in almost immediately, and as tho bulk of the men to arrive are now fit men the time between their arrival and discharge should not be long, so that the demand for clothes, particularly suits, will bo extraordinarily heavy for the next six months. In the meantime the mills have to keep faith with their customers in respect to supplies of shirts, flannel, underclothing, etc. This means a busy time for the mills throughout the year. The only mills that go' in for manufacturing clothing are the Wellington Woollen Company, the Kaiapoi, and tho RoSiyn mills. But there are numerous factories all over the country making up clothing from tho tweed supplied them by tho New Zealand mills. At the present timo the orders are three months behind, and there is at present no'immediate.prospect of the situation becoming easier, owing to the general unrest at Home and the inability of Home firms to supply either tweeds or made-up clothes to any appreciable extent.