WHY?

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 93, 20 April 1932, Page 4

WHY?

COST OF WOOLLEN GOODS. MANUFACTURER EXPLAINS. Speaking recently to Dunedin Rotarians on the position of the woollen manufacturing industry, Mr. Stuart Glendining said, inter alia: — One of the greatest arguments that every manufacturer, retailer and wholesaler had to overcome came from the people who had no idea about the production of woollen goods. They said "wool at £8 10/ a bale and garments at 12/6 each," or "wool at £8 10/ a bale. why does a suit cost me £9 or £10? That was a matter which was very hard to explain to the average person. The only convincing way to explain it was to show them through a woollen mill, and they would realise the processes and the enormous capital invested, and the overhead charges needed to produce those garments. Every manufacturer to-day was only too pleased to show anyone in the country through his establishment, and by so doing the manufacturer was doing much to further New Zealand production.

Mr. Olendining proceeded to give an idea of some of the processes the garments had to go through. First, New Zealand was practically the only country in the world where garment were produced right from the greasy wool to the finished article under one roof. In most other countries all these different processes were done by piece Work. First and foremost, the wool had to be scoured and cleaned, and in that process it lost from 2;" to 00 per cent of its weight. In the class of wool that New Zealand mills mostly used the loss was in the vicinity of 50 per cent. Tn the manufacture of the worsted garment, such as the under singlet, there were forty-seven different processes from the raw material to the dispatch of the finished article, that one garment having to go through dozens of hands and many very expensive machines. In the manufacture of the pure wool garment there were thirty-three processes, and in the manufacture of worsted suitings, such as most of the people were wearing to-day, there were forty-one different processes, which showed that there was no comparison between the price of wool per lb and the number of pounds of wool in the finished garments. In conclusion, the speaker ou'oted the slogan: "Wear woollen, wear New Zealand, help your fellow man. and help to bring prosperity back to this country of ours."