FACTORIES WORKING SHORT TIME

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 264, 4 August 1937, Page 8

FACTORIES WORKING SHORT TIME

Footwear Importations LARGE ORDERS PLACED ABROAD Dominion Special Service. Auckland, August 3. “There is no doubt at all about it. In spite of what the Minister may say, a number of factories are working short time, aud unless something happens they soon all will be,” said an Auckland footwear manufacturer when he was usked whether reports of falling trade in the south were true of local industry. This informant stated that although the Minister of Industries aud Commerce, Hon. D. G. Sullivan, had quoted figures to show that New Zealand manufactures were booming, the plain fact was, so far as footwear was concerned, that the figures were out of date. They did not reveal the sudden slump that had taken place in the past two months. Warnings had been received from travellers three or four months ago, when all factories were fully occupied, that orders were being diverted overseas because of the high prices in New Zealand and that retailers had large stocks of imported footwear in hand or on the water in anticipation of a rise on the English market. New Zealand manufacturers had been faced with heavily increased costs through higher wages and shorter hours under the new industrial legislation, while world shortage had driven up leather prices until in May they were 20 per cent, above the level of a year ago. The rise in leather appeared to be lagging in Britain as yet, although there had been some increase, and New Zealand retailers had'hurried to buy while the market was still favourable. “The fact is we have been suddenly hit by a rise in labour costs and raw materials,” the manufacturer continued. “My own opinion is that if wages aud hours had been altered gradually we might have been able to meet the situation, but as things are ive are helpless unless the Government does something for us. Only the other day a retailer who operates a chain of shops told me that he had exactly one order on hand for New Zealand shoes, and that had been given a week ago. As for importing, he made no bones about it. He had a buyer operating in London and was ordering heavily there.” Other inquiries showed that large quantities of footwear are arriving, and that requirements in many lines for months to come are likely to be met from stocks already in hand and shipments soon to be’ delivered.