SKY PRICES FOR COTTON.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 2122, 1 May 1920, Page 4

SKY PRICES FOR COTTON.

LATEST NEWS FROM ENGLAND. In a letter dated January 2711 i, 1020, Manchester merchants write to their representatives here on the conditions in the cotton and linen market. ‘‘Conditions have become worse each mouth in the cotton and linen market. .Prices have advanced considerably, and many goods are unobtainable for many months. Several (inns have ceased hooking orders, their product ion being more than sold out for some months ahead, and other firms are approaching the same period when they will have to refuse orders. We cannot .be surprised at their position when we boar, in mind that the reduction of the cotton operatives' working hours from 551 hours to 48 hours per week has reduced production roughly by 7 percent, ft was anticipated that by the reduced hours there might: be a speeding up which would compensate and act as a setoff against the curtailment of hours. However, these hopes have not materialised, and as a consequence we are faced with the inevitable result, that production falls short of demands. From the foregoing you can see what effect the shortage of supplies will have upon prices. The advance on the price lists you have received is roughly 30 per cent, for cotton and 35 to 40 per cent, for linen goods. With cotton at about 29d we mm only expect prices to be high, but even this high price is somewhat fictitious,, for spinners have to pay anything from 3d lo fid per Hi. more in order to secure their special grades of cotton required for their own particular work, and as the spinners are full of orders, it is not expected that they will be philanthropists and give anything away. The same remarks apply equally to the manufacturers, who seem inclined to take every advantage of the strong position in which they are placed at the present time. The sale of the-mills to syndicates has been going on io an alarming extent, but whereas the prices paid in (he first sales were three to four limes pre-war value, now as much as eight or ten times their value are being paid. Only last week one ntill was sold, and Ihe price arranged was £3O for a £5 share, of which only £3 had been called up, and this is not an isolated ease.

Looking at the position 'and general conditions all round, we are forced to the conclusion that Ihe outlook at the presold time is far more serious than during the whole period of the wav. The cliie! trouble is bow to get the goods, prices being a. secondary consideration.”