SLUMP AND PRICES.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 9, Issue 589, 3 December 1920, Page 3

SLUMP AND PRICES.

jj| I'tfßl TC AND CHEAP GdHjS. J2 Recent t- :1s thMdrop ir *? wool, th&.t:.U so on— L nave gg£% m as k Kx vv *? at Jp™|KJ^ e |p*" ,, nave OT )Jr f'spf wMF can be gatheri^fthere Jj^ ener »"esire to hazaflf%n opinand wmle a fallinjtfpndency is ■•cpected in some JWK prices are wpected to remaJjPKstationary in was s#Tmpression that recent prices hides market might j result in s reduction in the price / of boots, but a leading boot manufacturer expressed the opinion to a New Zealand Times reporter that this would not be the case. One had to bear irt mind, he said, that on the first of the month, the prices of leather were equalised. Then the hides sold recently did not * represent a very big quantity. Hides were actually hardening in price, and the price of boots could not go down. In the soft goods trade articles are being offered at reduced prices, and jK the public is hoping that a change ijr for the better has set in. In some businesses there are accumulations of goods and these are being worked off, in some instances at lower rates than they were, offered at in the immediate pas|. Meat is an expensive commodity at present, ind in this line, too, a reduction irt price in the near future is confidently looked for. A Southern expert in the textile trade, interviewed, gave substantial j reasons for the opinion that any reduction & prices to the public wftl come about, not in a natural way by a lessenad cost of production, but simply ofing to merchants and manu- . fr.cturers? competing against each other endeavour to lessen their heavy stocks, a state of affairs which ' cannot Inst if business is to be at all remunerative. He pftints out that in j Americay it is declared that 75 per ' cent, of] the cost is in the manufac- ■ tuiing, fcnd that the English makers • estimate, the expense of manufactur-..' ing at #0 per cent. Accepting that I position, the decrease in the price of . wool b* no means ensures cheaper 1 goods. JAs to wool, if the raw material; Mold be got for nothing, the ' differeMe in the cost of making ladies n costuflli tweeds in the Old Country J would *e no more than 2s per yard, i saw f*m; 20s to im*'Aa to cotton l goods, piking a standard. line of long- , troths 'the Home manufacturers now announce a reduction amounting to f , about 15 per cent., but from October f <>f last year to February of this year, the sanie makers increased the prices T by jl&fier cent., and to-day the prices l rir#«pr nearly as possible five-times as muenr'as the pre-war prices.