WASTAGE OF WAR

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2499, 28 June 1915, Page 6

WASTAGE OF WAR

LIFE OP A KHAKI UNIFORM IN THE TRENCHES

TWEED STUFFS JUMPING AT HOME

"The trouble at Home just now is that there are leu buyers to every seller. All the world is singing out tor woollens—tweeds, serges, worsteds, etc., and because'they can't get them, owing to Army contracts, the demand is becoming keener every month, and prices are beginning to reflect ail unprecedented position." These were tho words of a commercial man, who has been connected with the English tweed business during the whole ot his life. "Serge and tweeds," Jia added, "have already advanced from 40 to 60 per cent, on what they were a year ago, and as for hosiery—well, my people simply have not sent me any samples, as they are quite positive that they will not be able to deliver. Prices in that line have advanced 50 per cent, at Home, and even at the prices quoted no firm of manufacturers can guarantee delivery. This appears to me to be the chief of the two main causes of the rise. There have been cases where manufacturers have been able to supply, but have not been able to get their goods away, owing to the almost hopeless congestion at the London docks. I'rom my advices the blockage seems to be between the dock stores and the vessel. In one case, my firm sent down special people to try and get a certain shipment through on four occasions. Ihen, in despair, the goods were, reclaimed from the stores, entrained to Scotland, aud shipped there. Why the Bntish Government cannot step in and 6a.y that this sort of thing must not bo 1 no one seems able to say, but there is no doubt a good deal in what Mr. Lloyd George said when lie stated that the docks aud dockers should be placed under military law." Prices Advancing. "It stands to reason in any ease that the price of woollens must go up owing to the enormous wastage of war. Ordinarily, a man wears a suit for six or nine months—a khaki uniform only lasts from six to eight weeks in the trenchcs in Flanders. That makes me wonder if our mditary authorities have made arrangements as to re-uniforming our men m- r ron . t " t ' l .' s t " ue those at Galupon will be needing more clothes, i if the English estimate of the life of a khaki uniform is correct. A suit every 6lx weeks—that is necessary wastage, but wastage all the same when the ordinary life of a suit is set beside it. The uniform is only one class of article— tlie wastage of woollen goods sent to Europe in the winter and discarded in the summer will be something enormous. It all represents wool that in normal tunes would be made up into goods that people would wear for the usual length of timo, that is, without wastage. A Clance Ahead. Here's another factor that is going to count. As soon as the meat boat services are restored there is going to be a good deal more killling done during the war than in normal times, as I take it the armies in the field must have meat. This extra killing will deplete the flocks, and so diminish the quantity of wool clipped. In Australia they have suffered so severely from drought tlmt thero is to-day an actual shortage of frozen meat is actually being shipped to Adelaide for the first time since the rofrigerating process was discovered. That is immediate proof of the serious diminution of tho flocks of South Australia. When the flocks are thin, tho wool crop is poor, so Australia cannot be looked to for any relief this year, and the Argentine is said to be little better. This state of things, combined with the enormous demand, are going to make woollen goods almost unprocurable twelve months hence, mark my words I" Firing Away Cotton. "At present," continued our informant, "cotton goods are practically normal in price, but I cannot think that is likely to continue long. Only enough cotton is grown as a rule to meet tho world's normal needs, but here again the wastage of war comes in to upset all calculations. I saw it stated the other day that when the Queen Elizabeth was in action for a day she fired away ten bales of cotton, so it cannot be supposed that fewer than 10,000 bales of cotton per day are simply being blown into thin air when the artillery sections of all the armies engaged in the war are blazing away. That cotton would ordinarily be made up into goods that would last six months, so that it is pure wastage. Yet the world has to be supplied with cotton goods, so I cannot see but what there must be a rise in the price of cotton goods sooner or later."

Put your faith in tho penetrating, germ-killing properties of "NAZOL," and your cold will soon disappear. 60 doses, Is. Gd.—Advt. Advices received by tho English mail st»ta thai the total number of employees of the Fort of London Authority who have been called up or have volunteered for active service is 2009, including 238 man specially recruitcd for the Army Service Corps. TJp to April 29 tha number who had lost their lives whilst serving with His Majesty's forces was 53. Of theso 24 were in the Navy and 29 in the Army. The Port Authority has decided upon tlio appointment of 500 additional permanent labourers at the docks, in view of current and future requirements of trade ajid tho satisfactory results which the greater regularisation of employment has produced.

Advice was received on Tuesday that Private H. J. Jemmett, who was wounded in action at the Dardanelles, had died on the hospital ship Sicilia. Deceased was a son of Mr. J. Jemmett-, of I'ukeatua.

In the. backblocks Fluenzol is irvalnable for curinc malignant throat trouble.*