WOOLLENS AND COTTONS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XLIV, Issue 9873, 21 July 1923, Page 5

WOOLLENS AND COTTONS.

FLANNELS MAY BE CHEAPER. (Per Press Association.* DUNEDIN., July 20. A wholesale soft goods house reports a tendency of customers to prefer English .goods made .from wools that wore bought when raw material values ruled lower .than now. The New Zealand .mills since October have been working up tile higher-priced wools of the .past season. The tendency is, tlferefore, towards a reduction of prices, and probably the first cuts will be in flannels and blankets, (there being an expectation of an .announcement .to that effect shortly. The recent reduction in the number of retail drapery houses in Dunedin, and this present -disinclination -of the public to buy, has contributed toward tbe dullest time in trade since the slump due to over-n&portation. In some of the Home markets there .are signs of advances in prices, notably in carpets, where the rise its stated at £0 per cent., while cotton goods are firming a little. On the other hand, some lines of English hosiery are selling fairly cheaply. In men’s hosiery there has been over-stocking here for some years, and with one exception local mills tend to be undersold by the imported article. There is a tendency among the community to prefer an article at a slightly less price, though they know the dearer article will wear twice as long.