THE BOOT INDUSTRY

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 255, 7 March 1911, Page 5

THE BOOT INDUSTRY

MR. TAYLOR'S CHARGES OF i "SHODDY,"

By Telegraph.—Fnw Iwociatten. , Christchurch, Monday. ! In an interview, Mr. T. E, Taylor, M.P., expresses astonishment afc the mo« tion passed by the Canterbury Indus* trial Association on February 21 regretting that he made general statements in the House of Representatives in regard to the boot manufacturing industry "without due care and without necessary qualifications," statements which, the motion says, "wprc not borne out by facts in his possession." The motion also set out that the facts as stated by Mr. Taylor before a committee of the association point to shoddy boots being manufactured by one manufacturer only working on a very small scale in the North Island. Mr. Tavloi wag in the North Island when the association passed the motion and dealt witK a report on the question. He informed an interviewer that when he was asked by the association's committee to explain the class of goods to which he had referred he replied that he did not know that facts in his possession at the time he mentioned the matter in the House of Representatives applied to only one factory, and he did not con. aider that he wag. concerned to find the full extent of the evil to which he drew attention. He satisfied himself that his reliable, and he now claimed that nothing which had been said since had lessened the importance of the sub. ject In the House he urged that the existence of shoddy work in boots should be revealed to the purchaser of the inferior goods. Manufacturers' ought to disclose the character of the materials used. He did not reflect upon the whole boot industry of the DominIf"-. K "toost seemed that some one behind the motion passed by the aasa. ciation was more concerned iii discredit mg a political opponent than in stopping the manufacture of the rotten class of boots which certainly had got a root m New Zealand.

Mr. Taylor added that some of his opponents stated that at a public meeting m Knox Church schoolroom he had tried to magnify the inferior quality of the material he showed to the audience. He did nothing of the kind; he simply landed the material to the chairman and asked him if the material was cardboard or leather. Throughout the whole controversy he had spoken with moderation of an evil that manufacturers as well as the general public should keenly wish to see suppressed. Purchasers could not easily test the quality of the goods he referred to. In Wellington this week he had purchased a pair ol shoes of the class he had condemned. He had stripped one and had found tha insole to be cardboard; the toecap stifng was of the same material and newspaper composition with a little , , of . P°°r quality. Cardboard also entered into the manufacture of other parts of the boot. At a first glance the boots looked well enough, but a heavy shower of rain put them out of shape and practically pulped them. The pair cost I2s fid. He believed that shoes of that class were bought largely by the very people who conld least afford to }>ave their earnings. thrown awfty. o,i every possible occasion he would repeat his demand that purchasers should be protected by law against the attempts now being made to build up * trade in shoddy boots.