MISERY FOLLOWS CHEAP WOOLLEN IMPORTATIONS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 580, 5 February 1929, Page 9

MISERY FOLLOWS CHEAP WOOLLEN IMPORTATIONS

IDLE MILLS: WORKLESS MEN duty safeguard wanted (United P.A .— By Telegraph — Copyright) (Australian and N.Z. Press Association) (United Service) Reed. 9.5 a.ra. LONDON, Monday. The hearing of an application for safeguarding the duty on woo! and textiles was opened to-day before a committee of the Board of Trade. Mr. Cyril Atkinson, K.C., counsel for tiie applicants, said that they represented the worsted industry, but every branch of the wool, worsted and textile industry supported the application. Mr. A. S. Comyns Carr, K.C., who appeared tor a group of British manufacturers and merchants, said that he intended to call evidence to show that no British industry of importance made similar goods to those imported. Mr. Atkinson remarked that he understood that the opponents to the duty Included only one worsted manufacturer, the remainder being merchants. Mr. Comyns Carr replied that this was quite wrong. Mr. Atkinson said that Continentalspun worsteds were imported into Britain as woollens, and competed with light-weight British worsteds. They asked for duty upon light materials cf between two and 11 ounces. HUNDRED MILLS CLOSE DOWN He produced figures showing that 102 firms had closed down since 1918. Skilled operatives in the woollen and worsted industries had decreased by 25,690 in six years, and 33.000 out of those remaining were unemployed. Under 40 per cent, of the Bradford looms worked full-time. Thirty-seven per cent, were quite idle. “The essential fact is this,” he said: “The industry is full of the misery of unemployment, and of constant and continuous depression.” The proportion of imports to manufactures in 1907 was 1 to 18. It was now about 4 to 18. The ratio of exports to imports in 1913 was about 6to 1. In 1927 it was only 4to 3. He proposed to produce 28 samples of cloth and to show that foreign manufacturers were offering them at 22 to 40 per cent, below the lowest possible British price. The manufacturing cost of British cloth comprised raw material, 53 per cent.; wages, 33 per cent., and overhead, 14 per cent. Comparative figures for foreign manufacturers were 53 per cent., 16 per cent., and S per cent. The applicants desired duty covering at least tis 23 per cent, difference. The hearing was then adjourned. The national textile unions supported the application. UNIONS FORMERLY HOSTILE The “Daily Mail” refers to the joint application made by employers and employees for a safeguarding duty on dress goods. it says the unions were hostile to any measure for safeguarding a year ago. The fact that the workers no longer are ready to stand still and look on murmuring out-of-date freetrade shibboleths while vital industries decay is a most hopeful sign for the future, says the paper. Britain’s imports of woollen fabrics have increased 300 per cent, since 1921. Seven thousand British looms are out of action, and 25,000 textile workers have abandoned the industry. If all the imported fabrics were manufactured in Britain thousands ot artisans would be employed, the con sumption of coal would be largely increased and the prosperity of the textile industry would help to relieve others which are carrying an almost intolerable burden of taxation. Industries already safeguarded have greatly benefited.

The motor car industry has reduced prices and increased its exports nearlv 50 per cent. The tyre industry is building not only new factories, but new villages under the stimulus of duties.

The Federation of British Industries, in reviewing the last quarter of 1928, notes the appreciably bigger output of the basic industries. Steel increased by 199,000 tons, new shipbuilding was the highest since 1921, and the export of manufactures was S per cent, over that of 1924, one of the best post-war years.