PRICE OF FOOTWEAR.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 44, 22 February 1937, Page 4

PRICE OF FOOTWEAR.

LARGE INCREASE IN SYDNEY.

The price of footwear in Sydney is to be increased from 12% to 17 per cent. This is equivalent to about 3/ in the £1. This was decided at a meeting of the Boot Manufacturers and Allied Trades' Association in Sydney recently. Seasons given for the increase were the increased costs of labour and materials. The increase will operate almost immediately in the retail shops. It was explained in an official statement issued after the meeting that the increase in wages which affected about 16,000 employees throughout the Commonwealth would add from Id to 7d to the price of shoes. The new award rates come into operation on February 17. The greatest increase in material# had been in lining leathers, which had risen from 80 per cent to 110 per cent above the level of 18 months ago. It was also pointed out in the statement issued after the meeting that the Australian shoe and boot manufacturing industry was confronted with keen overseas importations and the growing opposition of the local rubber upper footwear industry. Twenty years ago the competition in rubber footwear was negligible, but to-day 3.000,000 pairs were sold in New South Wales alone. It had also to be remembered that in the last eight years 50 factories had gone out of business.