CLOTHING MATERIAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 1 November 1919, Page 6

CLOTHING MATERIAL.

THE DEMAND'™ NEW ZEALAND.

There has been and is a tremendous demand in New Zealand for clothing material. A leading merchant, tailor of Dunedin has been putting together a ifew figures on the subject (reports the Star). He estimates that on the average the returned isoldiers have each wanted two suits and an overcoat, requiring OJyds per man; that the men from camp have used nearly as much; that a large number of men who were expecting to be called up did not buy clothes for years, and since the armistice have had to run to the tailors; and with these and other demands upon our stocks he reckons that the excess demand for material has run into something like a million and a-half yards. We have submitted this calculation to other experts, and they agree that it is fair. So, even if the supply was up to the normal, there must have been a shortage of stuff. As a matter of fact, however, the supply is not up to the normal. By far the greater part of the material used has in the past come from the Old Country. On a low estimate the imported stuff was twothirds of the total—some say much more. This supply is virtually stopped, and ladies' ready-made costumes cannot bo imported in quantity because of- the price. In one way and another an enormous demand lias been made oil our New Zealand mills, and they are strained to keep their customers going as well as they can. We have heard in the street that both the Mosgiel and the Roslyn mills are handicapped by having many looms idle. This rumor exaggerates the fact. Still, there is something in it. There has been a reduction of hours of work all round, and labor of the kind required is always in short supply. As a result, the Mosgiel Company's mills are not always working to their full capacity, though the output is about equal to the average for the past few years. At the lloslyn mills there are no longer looms idle. The trouble there is that extra machinery which has been ordered has not come to hand, for the reason that the contracting firms in the Old Coun-1 try have lost their works by a fire. I