WOOLLENS AND TWEEDS.

Auckland Star, Volume LI, Issue 196, 17 August 1920, Page 5

WOOLLENS AND TWEEDS.

PRICES AND PROFITS. COMPANY C__AIRIIA_N'S VIEWS. (By Telegniph.—Presa-. Association.) WELLINGTON, this day. Speaking at the annual meeting of the | Wellington AVoollen Co. to-day, the chairman (Mr. W. H. P. Barber) referred to the increased price of goods. He: asserted that woollen manufacturers in; New Zealand were conducting- operations strictly on lines of fair trading, and were not taking advantage of the i-itua-! tion. That the selling prices the world | over were so hhjh was a calamity. But it. was a fact that Xew Zealand mill prices, taken on an ultra-conservative basis, were at least one-half only of those for similar imported' articles. Every "woollen" textile, adulterated or not, and no matter where produced, if on sale at retail shops, seemed to be classed by the public as with unfair results to the woollen companies. Referring to the statement that the farmer received for his wool 154 a pound, and that one yard of cloth contained one pound of wool where euits of clothesweresoldat £18, Mr. Barber said it might be that some qualities of wool did not realise more than 1/3 a pound, and that some tailors were selling suit* at £-18, but it was the deliberate coupling of the two assertions, iuferentially accusing mill owners of profiteering, to which he took strong exception. No clotit ever left Petone mills at a price that would justify _uch a retail charge for a suit, to imported tweeds, that was another matter which could be best answered by tailors concerned.