FALSE LABELS ON GOODS

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21578, 14 September 1935, Page 18

FALSE LABELS ON GOODS

M.P. SUGGESTS NEED FOR ACTION SPECIMEN SOCKS PRODUCED IN PARLIAMENT IFrora Our Parliamentary Reporter.! '! WELLINGTON. September 13. Socks and stockings branded as wool but said to contain 50 to 70 per cent, -ef cotton were produced in the House of Representatives today by Mr F. Jones (Lab., Dunedin South), who claimed that action should be taken to prevent shocVy goods from' being falsely described. Mr Jones referred to" the Footwear Regulation Act of 1913, which, he said, forced footwear manufacturers to state whether their goods contained any material but leather, and declared that something of the same kind was drastically needed to restate the quality of clothing coming into the Dominion. Mr Jones produced a pair of x socks which, he said, were branded as wool and had been made in England, being retailed in. New Zealand at Is 3d a pair. These had been dipped in a caustic solution to remove the wool, and it had been found that the top portion was made entirely of cotton. "This is where the profits come to the rich men about whom the Government is so deeply! concerned," said Mr Jones.

Another' pair, branded as wool, bore the mark "Army British," with the' Union Jack stamped on the foot. "If they want to palm anything off on anybody they use the Union Jack," Mr Jones added. "That is what the Government does, but. like these socks, I think it contains a good deal of shoddy."