A SHORTAGE OF LEATHER.

Taranaki Daily News, 30 March 1917, Page 7

A SHORTAGE OF LEATHER.

WHERE ARE SUPPLIES COMING , FROM? (From Our Own Correspondent). Wellington, March 27. - "For the first time since the- English and French were fighting the Russians in the Crimea, there are no stocks of leather in the world," said Mr. C. K Bosworth, Commissioner of the United States Department of Agriculture, in conversation with your representative. Mr. Bosworth recently completed a tour of New Zealand, undertaken for the purpose of studying matters connected with the leather industry in this country, and he has now gone to Australia on a similar mission. He expects to spend several years visiting all the countries that produce hides and leather or that could produce <>ither article. "The plain truth is that the world is right face to face with a shortage of leather," he adUed. "Thero is not enough leather to go round, and it looks as if some of us might ■ have to do without hoots and bags, saddles, harness, engine helts and all the other necessities we make from leather. That is why my Government has sent me to look into the matter and see what the position is going to be." Mr.. Bosworth explained that the shortage of labor was not merely a consequence of the war. It had been threatening for many years, owing to the rapid increase in the number of consumers of leather, the enormous growth in tho industrial demand and the reduction of supplies of 'hides in the world's markets. The change in the ratio between the number of hide-producing animals and the number of consumers of leather could have only one meaning. The effect of the war had been to bring matters to a head quickly by exhausting accumulated stocks of leather In every country. One order for boots placed in the 'United States in the early stages o? the war had required for its execution some 275,000 sides of the best leather, and other 1 orders had followed. The European countries had quickly used all their own leather and searched the world for new supplies. "There is no substitute for leather, that is, for good leather," said tho American. "The army that walks on leather is going to beat the army that walks on any other known substance. So the armies have used up all the leather there is and they are crying for snore. "Where are the extra supplies coming from? Well, as 1 said, somebody ! (j going to go short of leather. The conntries that can pay the most will get the goods. But my Government has sent me to look into a few corners of the world /where the supply of leather can possibly be increased. lam going up into the Northern Territory of Australia to look at the buffaloes there. Perhaps those beasts are not giving up just as much of their hide as they could spare. We must discourage waste wherever it goes on* Then I am going to spend a few months in China, where they are allowing cattle to die from anthrax. No need for that, you know. We have got that anthrax proposition well fixed, and I am going to show the Chinamen what they have to do. "I have been having a talk to Sir Ernest Shackleton about those sea elephants ho Used, to meet down South i j Georgia way, Very thick hides they . seem to grow dtfvvn there. The Nionvsi gians kPI a lot of sea elephants for the oil, and I am going to see about getting ■ a. few hides into a tannery in : America. Then I am planning a visit :.. to Africa to see about the skinning of i the rhinos. Thero are good hides from ! Africa, but the black fellows spoil a ' lot of them by bad skinning. My Goi vernment wants them shown how to ' handle the hides in the raw and get the ' best results from each beast. Every bit helps, but you can be sure that nothing i is going to prevent the shortage. There ' isn't enough leather now, and there will • he an even shorter supply in the future, i You will have to pay for your boots^'