THE BOOT INDUSTRY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 103, 28 May 1909, Page 3

THE BOOT INDUSTRY.

INCREASE IN IMPORTATIONS. . SOME INTERESTING FIGURES. Telegraph.— Association. Wellington, bast Xight. The Arbitration Court continued the hearing of the dispute in the bootmaking industry to-day. Mr. Frostick, in his address," on behalf oi' the employers, quoted figures to show how 1 the importation of boots was increasing. If all the toots now imported were made in Nm Zealand employment wouhl be given to about fifteen hundred persons. Ncariy two hundred thousand pair_ of boots wore were imported in l{lO(>'"than were made in New Zealand. An award for higher wages would mean that it would be impossible for employers to carry on without running a great risk o£ destroying their business. If wages were to he based on profits they must also be based upon losses. Australia, with a population.of ionr millions in l!)0ti, imported footwear to the value of £06.889; in

1908 she imported worth, a decrease of £13,914 for the two years. New Zealand, with a. population ot about one million, imported boots valued at £128,187 in 1906, and the British importations in 1008 were valued at ijei42,182 ? , an increase for two years of jiilSiWo, as against Australia's decrease of £13.1)14. Surely tlresfe were startling figures to be considered. tM only by the boot manufacturers, but by the whole j people of New Zealand. In 1888 the per j centage of imported boots per head of population in. New Zealand was .80; \ in 1907 it was 1.42; thus every person !. 'in New Zealand, taking the average, was i wearing nearly a pair and a-halr of duti--1 able boots per year. Eighty per cent, of the people were working people, and were not loyal to their own industries. After evidence had been taken for the employers, Messrs Frostick and Cooper addressed the Court. It was* then decided that the parties should meet in conference to-morrow morning.