IMPORTED FOOTWEAR.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 24, 29 January 1926, Page 10

IMPORTED FOOTWEAR.

AFFECTING LOCAL INDUSTRY. FACTORIES VERY SLACK. In the opinion of one of Auckland's leading manufacturers, the boot and shoe industry locally has never experienced [such a'slack period as at present. The ! factories arc keeping going, but that iI all. the orders being insufficient to proi vide employment for a full stall', and I many tradesmen nro either out of work or only working short time. Boot and shoe manufacturing is one of the Dominion's, important industries. but it is clear that, with so much I imported footwear coming to these shores. I the local manufacturers are finding it difficult to keep their factories going at to]) speed. Manufacturers long since recognised the seriousness of the position, and over twelve months ago a deputation representing manufacturers and workers in the trade waited upon the late Prime Minister, Mr. W. F. Massey. and pointed out the necessity for some steps being taken to ensure the stability of the industry in the Dominion. Nothing beneficial to New Zealand resulted, and to-day the industry is perhaps being still more affected than it was previously. Speaking to a '"Star"' reporter this morning, one of tlu> leading manufacturers of the city stated that, in his long experience. business was never quieter in boot manufacturing than it was at the moment, and lie realised that something would have to be done to bring the fact home to the people that it is to their interests to patronise local industry. There had been some talk about again placing the position before the Government, but he was afraid that not a great deal of good would result. What was required was a campaign to bring the people to realise that the locally-made boot or shoe was quite as good, and wvy often superior, to the imported article. '•I don't know why it is. but it is remarkable to mc that the public! will go and pay considerably , more for an imported article than for something that is much superior and which is made here. In this respect the ladies are the most foolish. They must have the "latest from America or from Paris, or England, and they never stop to think that they can purchase a shoe every bit as good, with a fine linish, stylish shape, and a shoe that gives the maximum of comfort fur perhaps £1 less. ''If it wasn't serious for our trade it would be humorous, because many people are just throwing money away. Kvorv shoe or boot made in Auckland to-day is all leather —you cannot say that for all imported footwear. The ieather for all the uppers of the footwear is imported to Auckland from America, so that we use for uppers leather exactly similar to that used in America and England. The sole leather is made in Auckland and is quite as good as tha best procurable. Our lasts are all the latest shapes imported, and our workmen, many of them, have come to Xew Zealand and are now employed in our factories, so that it cannot be said footwear made in New Zealand does not have the best workmanship put into it. ''I say this without fear of contradiction," he added, "that in children's footwear there is no comparison between the imported article and that made locally. We put in nothing but leather, not my particular factory, but all local factories. but you will find very, very often in the imported 'stuff' plenty of cardboard. The public will have to be wakened up m the fact, and I think we manufacturers will have to open a campaign to bring that object about. It is not much use looking for the Government to do very much, and a campaign carried out through the newspapers seems to be our best course." He admitted that not very much had been done by manufacturers themselves to bring before the public the excellence of Xew Zealand-made boots and the fact that they are often superior to the imported article. He suggested that an organised publicity campaign l>v members of the manufacturers' associations throughout the Dominion would bear fruit, and that in the existing condition of the boot industry something more than individual effort was needed. 0