Messrs Staples & Co.'s Wellington Boot Factory

Feilding Star, Volume XIV, Issue 15, 23 July 1892, Page 2

Messrs Staples & Co.'s Wellington Boot Factory

. — » — The Post in an article dealing with the above industry says : — The factory contains 7,656 ft of floor space and between 5000 and 6000 pairs of boots are made on the premises every month and employs 130 hands. The customers of the firm are not confined to the city, as possibly might have been imagined, but Staples' travellers, with samples bearing the familar brand of the firm, viz., the head \ of the Iron Duke, are to be met in the '. North Island as far north as New Plymouth and Gisborne, whilst the other island is worked to Christchurch and. Nelson, and a well-established agency in the hands of Mr Sclanders, of the Cathedral City, looks after the firm's interest throughout the mining towns and camps of " the Coast." The exterior of the factory is by no means pretentious; but there is bustle and noise enough within. This is no place for idlers, as nearly every employe — other than the clickers and foremen of the various departments— is engaged on piece-work. On the light of the entrance is the sample-room, where the storeman. is engaged in packing up the travellers' samples. These samples aTe quite formidable outfits, as may be imagined when it is mentioned that Messrs Staples and Co. turn out 350 different kinds of boots and shoes. The samples run up the entire gamut of the art of the disciples of St. Crispin, from the plebian copper-toe of the ort:zan's tmv toddler to the heavy shooting boot of the sportsman, or the porpoise uppers and broad soled boots of the " gent. " Opposite the sample-room is the office and accountant's branch, whilst the factory itself is reached through a glass door. Here are situated a large storeroom for leather huge piles of which crowd tne store from floor to ceiling. The clickers' room i 9 on the first story. Herein all the boot uppers are cut out by Mr J. W. Thompson, head of the department, and his subordinates, from zinc patterns, and to be passed through blocking presses, which give them the required shape of the foot. A very powerful machine for sewing the heavier description of men's boots is pointed out by the. foreman with pardonable pride. The ..thread used for sewing with this machine passes on its way to the machine through a reservoir of hot wax. This is ingenious and emm ently practical. . The girls' sewing machine room is next visited!! Some 25 neatly-attired girls, ranging from about 14 to 20 years of age, are busily engaged at machines, which are worked by belts from shafting driven by a compact 3 h.p. motor engine, situated in the room below. The ground at the rear of the premises is devoted to the sole cutting room where the sole leather, having been subjectedtoa pressure of three tons is passed through revolving steol rollers, so as to harden the material, and is cat by machinery into the required shapes land sizes. The soles are next passed on to the ■' benchers' " room where the uppers are pegged on, and the now well-de-veloped boot is then handed to the boot finishers- Having been manipulated by no fewer than six separate pairs of hands the perfected boot passes upstairs once more, when it is taken charge of in the warehouse and packing room. So far as the* manufactory is concerned, the works are under the immediate .supervision of Mr W. Staples, the senior member of the firm, whilst the accountant's and the packing branches are under the control of Mr Brunskill, the remaining partner. '