Millers Hardest Hit By Fabric Decision

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31167, 17 September 1966, Page 14

Millers Hardest Hit By Fabric Decision

The lifting of duty and exemption from import licensing of light-weight woven woollen piecegoods would virtually halt the entire production of light-weight flockings of Millers Worsted and Woollen Mills, Ltd., Christchurch, said the firm’s managing director, Mr R. B. Miller, yesterday.

He was commenting on the Government’s decision to adopt the recommendations of the Tariff and Development Board’s 87-page report on the woollen industry, published yesterday.

He said the decision would cost Millers thousands of pounds. “We would be one of the firms hardest hit by this Tariff and Development Board report,” Mr Miller said. Fiftytwo per cent of his company’s production was in the lightweight field and it amounted to half the New Zealand light weight cloth output. Millers had put in specialised machinery costing £64,000 to make light-weight fabrics—those weighing less than 51 ounces a square yard.

This plant could be used to produce other yarns, but with reduced efficiency and economy. The Government was always asking for New Zealand firms to specialise, he said. “We specialised and look what happened to us,” said Mr Miller. “We have been penalised as a result of it.”

Mr Miller said that many New Zealand producers of heavy-weight woollen materials would also be badly hit. A lot of light-weight cloths coming into New Zealand would be used as substitutes for heavier cloths. Foam-backing would be used on the imported lighter weight cloths, so that they could take the place of New Zealand heavy-weight cloths. Foam-backing would be widely used in women’s fashion garments, children’s garments and for men’s overcoats, he predicted.