A Leather Famine.

Feilding Star, Volume XVII, Issue 75, 25 September 1895, Page 3

A Leather Famine.

The Paris correspondent of the Daily News says : -We «re threatened with a crisis in the boot trade. It appears that leather has become almost as scarce as in a beleaguered town, although not an article of food in time of peace. Tho minister of War has been alarmed lest in a month or two it would be impossible to Bhoe the army at any price, and he has Riven orders to lmy up at once all the available leather on the mar- ■ ket. He will ask the Chambers for a grant of £60,000, representing the enhancement of cost. The leather question affects the public as much as a | new tax. The inhabitants of this country will have to pay a .million and a quarter sterling this year for their boots, the sudden and unexampled rise in leather being as high as 60 per cent for sonio sorts. The chief reason for this is that the western farmers of the United States, finding the profits of cattle breeding diminish, have curtailed their business. Moreover, an unusually large number of cattle were slaughtered in 1893, when fodder was so dear in consequence of the drought. Lastly the war j between China and Japan has caused a " rise, both the belligerents having sent orders for boots to Europe. Unfortunately it is anticipated that prices will not lapse to their normal level before a few years. _______,_.,__