SUMMER CLOTHES.

Taranaki Daily News, 14 August 1920, Page VIII

SUMMER CLOTHES.

HIGHER PRICES THAN EVER. PROSPECTS FOR TARANAKI Though winter clothing is still one's best friend in Taranaki, the thoughts of women will soon be turning to all those pretty clothes which make the spring and summer season such a joy to thiyu. There is something cosy about big drapery stores in the winter which make their brightly lit windows good to look on in the chill winter's evening, but there" is nothing in the world where women live which is more fascinating than these shops dressed for spring and summer. The "very look of spring goods in all their tempting loveliness arouses thoughts of long summer days, with beaches, tennis lawns, and all the good things which summer briijgs into the world. Even men show a remarkable interest in the matter, and a Daily News sentative has been speaking to several leading NtTw Plymouth drapers about the coming seaSon, for there are few things of more absorbing interest to-day than clothes and their wearers—and their prices. But the result of the pressman's enquiries is not very cheering,' for though bright news would be appropriate for sunny days, his message for the women is this: "All kinds of spring and summer goods are going to be dearer this coming season than ever before—the rises vary from 25 per cent, to as high as 150 per cent.—and supplies are likely to be irregular. The only bright feature is a fall in the price of Japanese silks."

Whether this will lead to less activity in summer shopping remains to be se«n, but one firm observes a distinct tendency towards economy, and it is assumed that this will be maintained with highfer prices. "Where buyers upd to take a dosen yards of some material they, fancied they now only purchase* the amount they actually require for the moment," he said. "They are inclined to confine their buying to essential goods, but all these lines are becoming much dearer." The causes arc just those which explain high prices in all commodities —high prices and scarcity of raw material, and a marked shortage of labor. In tlje case of New Zealand manufactured material—which, by the way, is of fine quality and cheaper than imported lines—the shortage of labor is particularly acute. Girls are being attracted to more comfortable walks of life than factories provide, and recently, when one manufacturing firm advertised throughout New Zealand for 200 girls, the response was one solitary applicant.

Here are some of the new advances for the coming season's goods:—

Material. Increase. Cotton shirtings 150 percent, Laces, veilings, trimmings 100 „ . All cotton goods 80 „ ' Quilts 70 „ Dress materials 70 " „ Children's frocks 50 „ Girls' frocks .. 25 „

As illustrating the difficulties of importing goods one draper said that six months ago he had ordered goods at very high prices, on the understanding that if a further increase in price occurred he would not import, and now he has been advised that the price has jumped seventy per cent. "In this case," he added, "I am simply cancelling the order, for it is no good landing stuff at such prices. Our goods are high-priced now, but the manufacturers' quotations in England to-day are in many cases above what the goods are marked retail in New Plymouth to-day. For cloths which we now sell at 2s 3d the price wanted at Home is 2s 9d, and so on. Cotton prices appal one these days. When I started business in New Plymouth twenty-seven years ago We used to buy cotton at 9s lid a gross, retailing it Rt %d a reel. To-day we pay 78s a gross, and the retail price is 7d a reel "

On? of the most striking features of the soft goods market to-day is the scarcity of blankets. Though .prices are firtn the greatest trouble is not the cost. It is rationing on a very severe scale, and most firms have a "waiting list" of purchasers of blankets. The other week they received one pair, but their plight was nothing to that of one of the largest retail houses in Auckland, which received two pairs to meet an intense demand. It is here that the New Zealand mills are feeling the scarcity of labor, which is seriously retarding their output. Another factor is the i«ereitsed demand of recent years for New Zealand suitings,. and overcoat cloth, primarily dJe to the ax-soldiers' demand for "civvies," and a recognition of the high quality of the New Zealand article.

And so the Daily News man concludes that the sun may shine on happy crowds on beaches, racecourses, tennis lawns, and other summer resorts, but they will not be such elaborately dressed crowds, for milliners say that women will be more simple in their tastes, and less generous in their buying.