WHY IS CLOTHING DEAR?

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3402, 5 February 1920, Page 3

WHY IS CLOTHING DEAR?

THE ANSVVER.

"I had many opportunities of meeting prominent men in the South Island, and I was struck with the fact that there they take the cost of living less philosophically than in the North,” said the Rev. S. Robertson Orr, who had just returned from an extended ‘tour of the South Island, when speaking to a. Post reporter the other day. “One g'Glltl.(.‘lll‘3.ll told me he expected there would be 3, revolu. tion in a small way, if things continued as they were. Another business -man showed me 8. isaniple of tweed, which two years ago cost. 9/9 a. yard, and now cost 19/9, It was a colonial sanipie, and he remarked that wool had not advanced in price since then, and woollen mill wages had advanced but little. A well-known Citizen was in his shop purchasing a suit, and jocularly remarked that £l2 for a suit looked like profiteering. The- reply was, ‘Go to your friend —— (a wellknowu manufacturer); he will tell you the reason why.’ The citifgeu ilnmediately changed his tune. and said, "Well you ean’t blame him, can you‘? I-le’s got the ball at his feet now, and is mia.-king the most of his opportunity.’ I went through one ;~'outhern woollen mill, and found that the wages were much the same as those paid before the war, but two .<llareholdel's informed me that they were xW*Ci\‘ixlg 12 per cent on their shares, and that the reserve fund had been quadrupled. When we face these facts it is not hard to discover where the extra charge for colonial suits is going" to. Surely the Board of Trade could look into the nianufac tnrers" eosts and chaiges.”