FOOTWEAR INDUSTRY

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20040, 12 September 1939, Page 15

FOOTWEAR INDUSTRY

LICENSING APPROVED MAINTAINING EFFICIENCY Gratification that the Minister of Industries and Commerce, the Hon. D. G. Sullivan, has decided to license the boot and shoe industry, accepting with only slight amendments a provisional plan placed before the Bureau of Industry ,by the industry itself, was expressed 'by the president of the New Zealand Footwear Manufacturers’ Association, Mr. D. V. Wilson.

The decision to license was the outcome of efforts made during the past two years by a special committee set up by the association for the express purposes of investigating proposals for rationalising the industry, he said.

The committee satisfied itself by what had been accomplished through voluntary reorganisation that licensing would be in the best interests of the industry, and the executive of the association, acting under authority given at the last annual conference of the association, prepared the plan now accepted. “For some years the footwear industry has been the object of unfair, criticism,” added Mr. Wilson. “Now this criticism must be silenced. The decision to license indicates the tyillingness of the industry to maintain its standard of efficiency, and the new development shows that we appreciate our obligations and arc prepared to fall in with the best in modern developments.”