DEATH BY FLANNELETTE

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 345, 22 March 1910, Page 4

DEATH BY FLANNELETTE

One more little child is dead because greed still induces manufacturers to make the abominable material called "flannelette." This last case happened at Carterton; the child was 4y 2 years old; and it was, o'i course, tortured to death. The jury, as always, "added a strong rider condemning the use of flannelette." A Carterton jury might as well condemn Siberia, for all the good >their rider will do in Yorkshire or Lancashire or any place where this sudden death makes people rich. A manufacturer or seller of flannelette argues at once that poor people buy flannelette because it is cheap; that it is a boon to these je.ople; and that it is therefore quite justifiable that its manufacture •shall be continued. There is an enormous profit to the manufacturer, the merchant, and the retailer in flannelette, and it is cne of the few dangerous products permitted to be sold unchallenged. When a chemist sells poison, h declaration must be made by the buyer, who is protected as ¥ar as possible. Regulations exist whereby the stomach of the people Is carefully attended to; but there exists no regulation prohibiting sellers of flannelette inviting mothers to burn their children to death. In the case of explosives, spirits, and other dangerous products the vessels or packages must

be marked to show the contents arc dangerous. But flannelette goes on its mission of death unheralded. As we have ibefore remarked, every yard of flannelette sold in New Zealand (or elsewhere) should be stamped or labelled, "This material is dangerously inflammable." The Government kindly concerns itself with every phase of the people's lives and guards them tenderly irom the cradle to the grave; but the Government still continues to allow the murderous flannelette to enter this country, where it has already worked havop with infant lives, and has now added another victim to the long list.