BUSINESS DECLINES

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 15, 11 October 1937, Page 6

BUSINESS DECLINES

-Press Assoeiatiori.)

Footwear Industry Working Short Time IMPORT COMPETITION

(By Telegraph-

AUCKLAND, Last Night. Further evidence of the depressed state of the footwear-oianufacturing industry in Auckland through the flood of importations was afforded when Messrs Bridgens and Co., Ltd., probably the largest firm of footwear manufacturers in the Dominion, for the first time in its history, yesterday notified employees that short time would have to be worked. The company gave this notification to 60 of its 300 hands, and it is said that up to yesterday it was the only factory in Auckland that had managed to keep employees engaged on full time, or which had not dismissed hands for lack of work. It is claimed by a number of Auckland factories that the depressed state of the industry, so far as Auckland is concerned, is the worst they have experienced since the Great War. Many factories, to keep hands employed,-are building up stocks, a practiee they describe as uneconomic. Arising out of the broadcast from Parliament on Tuesday evening, Mr H. W. Shove, the chairman of the Auckland group of the New Zealand Footwear Manufacturers' Association, sent the following telegram to Mr W. T. Anderton, M.P.: "Did you state in the House that the boot trade in Auckland is busy and that extra hands are being engaged? If so, I would appreciate youT authority for this statement, which is absolutely incorrect. The matter is urgent.' ' , * . Mr Shove Teceived the following reply from Mr Anderton: "My statement in Parliament referred to the increased trade during the past two years. The Minister of Customs assures me that the present position is being investigated by the Government with a view to the issue of a poliey statement within the next fortnight." , "It seems incrediblo that Mr Anderton did not make himself aequainted with the state of affairs in the bootaiairafacturing industry in Auckland before he made his broadcast statement in Parliament stating that the industry in this city Was busy," said Mr O. A. Watts, the secretaTy of the New Zealand Federation of Boot Trade Operatives. "The position in the boot trade in Auckland . is .that unemployment is riffl',." declared Mr Watts ."Within tho past eight weeks 400 hands have been affeeted by short time, with a loss of wages of £2545. These are all adult workers. Four factories are Teduced to making stock. One factory has closed down, involving 27 dismissals. ' Altogether, the state of the boot trade in Auckland is pitiful." Mr Watts added that a factory which had probably the largest output in New Zealand had only been able to continue the employment of all its hands by the creating of stocks and had now announce that short time would be worked as from next week. In all the cireumstances the remarks made by Mr Anderton were most unfortunate.