CHEAP CARPETS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 329, 14 April 1928, Page 1

CHEAP CARPETS

Young Aucklander Has His Eyes Opened SCHEME FOR THE UN WAR > When a young married resident t*f Auckland read an advertisement in an English magazine that he could 1> real carpets for a few shillin.es each, he imagined that his furnishing prob lem had been solved. But it has only just started. The carpets he ordered from the English firm arrived yesterday. He is a much wiser man to-day. They are no more like real carpets than a bale of pipe-cleaners. After reading the advertisement the Auckland householder wrote to the firm asking for particulars. By * turn post he received an elaborai • catalogue, which would have stirred the emotions of any man confronted with the problem of how to furnish a house nicely on a limited income There were stair and landing car pets, “admittedly the cheapest in the world, in rich Turkey patterns,’* at Is Is 4d and Is Sd a yard, heavy pile reversible Eastern rugs at Ss 6d each, “best Axminster carpets, all wool, bordered, complete ready for laying, a most appropriate article for ministering to the luxury of any room, 7J fee by 9 feet, at £3 19s 6d,” all-wool Royal Brussels carpets. 6ft Sin by 9fr for £2 4s 6d. and a thousand other alluring floor coverings at equally al luring prices. Fired with the spirit of economy the young man and his wife selected their carpets and forwarded the price. Hopes were dashed to the ground when the parcels were opened yesterday. The carpets i ?) are strange looking compositions of jute, highly coloured and smelling very strongly of their origin. The dyes by which they were coloured were so fast that they had come off on the paper in whicb the floor coverings were wrapped When the “carpets*' were held up to the light they were discovered to be loosely woven things, rather like a variety of scrim. In addition to the cost of the im ported articles the young householder has to pay 21 per cent, preferential duty. Probably the “carpets" could have been bought in Auckland at about half the original cost. There is not a scrap of wool in any of them, ami the workmanship is extremely rough. Their only claim to fame is that they are “the cin the world." To lure the guileless into buying th rubbish the catalogue of the mantt facturers, a Leeds firm, contains columns of names of important people, beginning with the Queen of Sweden and ending with Lady Voules. There are Baronesses, Countesses, Com manders, Admirals. Knights. Lord-. Duchesses and H.R.H. Prince K. Bie-»» Siam. Testimonials are numerous, all telling the same story, “Tho Do* ager Lady has just received the pile carpet and thinks the pattern and colouring beautiful"; “The Countes: of would thank the Co. to send her another carpet, similar to the one she got a fortnight ago, which is most satisfactory." If the carpets bought by the titled folk of England are similar to those forwarded to the Auckland resident, one can only imagine that they are I used extensively in the servants’ ball.