WOOLLEN GOODS
PRONOUNCED WINTER SHORTAGE STOCKS NEARLY EXHAUSTED "Do you know," said a man in trade to a Dominion reporter yesterday, "that you would have great difficulty in buying twenty pairs of- blankets in Welling, ton to-day, and that you might not W able to buy a travelling rug at all?" Tho statement was such that inquiries were set afoot at once. A reporter ventured into several shops in search of blankets and rugs, but without success. At'last lie found a singlo rug in a great emporium that as a rule stocks hundreds, and was so delighted that he was about to purchaso it, 'forgetting for the niomenl that ho did not really want tho article at all. As a result of his inquiries, how. ever, he ascertained that Wellington— indoed New Zealand—is a bare market as far as ivoollen manufactures of ths kind mentioned aro concerned. An authority consulted said that the condition of things was the result of a variety of causes. Ono reason was thai tho English, supply of woollens—tweeds, blankets, etc.—has been almost entirely cut oif from Now Zealifcd and Australia. Many held that New Zealand was independent of English manufactured woollen goods.' As the value of English woollens imported into Now Zealand be. foro the war totalled XS.SOO.OMHn valu# per annum, it is easy to realise that such a blank is not possible to fill by New Zealand's ten mills. Then a contributing cause of the shortage was tho fact that right through tho war the mills had to stick to the manufacture of khaki. The soldier had to be clotlied-well clothed—no matter what happened, so that the domestic trade was neglected awl stocks disappeared from thi?' warehouses. Then, a third cause, numbers of people who had held off buying as long as the war was on had felt, when the trouble was over (and the weather was very coldj. that t!hey could replenish their stocks of blankets, and had done so. Mountains of blankets had disappeared in tho last two months, and now the shops wero living from hand to mouth. The mills had not ceased to manufacture blankets-there wero machines, that would make -nothing but tha demand was so keen that it simply ißoaJit taking tho blankets off tlio machines and sending them to the wrap, ping room for delivery to the retailers. Tha market was now practically bare, and was likely to remain so for some timo to come. It is not considered that the shortage has/ increased the price of such goods as blankets and rugs, but the • increased price of wool, tho new wages award, the reduction of the weekly hours from 48 to 45 have had the effect of raising the prices this year by about 15 per cent, (wholesale). At the same time it has to be remembered that in the period which has 6een a rise in price of about 70 to 80 per cent., English manufactured woollen goods havo increased between 800 and -MO per cent. The manufacture of tweeds has since tho armistice occupied the attention of all the mills, but their total output cannot in any way meet (he demand occasioned by tho almost total stoppogeof shipments of English and Scottish tweeds. So tho sight is now presented of tailors, who hitherto have been inclined to neglect colonially-mado tweeds, begging cap in hand for soino to go on with. They, in somo instances, have discovered hitherto unsuspected virtues in the tweed turned out by the New Zealand mills. Tho mills, however, do nob avail them much, because they, have all they can do pretty woll to l%eep thoir own factories going and tho outside factory clients who had been such faithful customers 'before the war. Somo of the New Zealand mills havo 110 factories of their own, and may have a few lengths of tweed to sell to those outsido tbeir regular clientele. The .conditions have brought about an entire change in the relations of New Zealand companies and clients.
Some of the woollen mill companies at one timo did a very large business in the making of chart suits, i.e., suits made from measurements taken by a friend in any part of tho town or country. That trade lias almost entirely disappeared under the strain of latter-day business, as it meant an individual cut, whereas box suits can be cut in bulk. As between thirty and forty sizes and shapes of box suits wero usually turned tut b/ ono factory, there were few figures that could not be well fitted with tho box suit of to-day.
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Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 219, 10 June 1919, Page 6
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763WOOLLEN GOODS Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 219, 10 June 1919, Page 6
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