THE LEATHER MARKET.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIX, Issue 119, 23 May 1910, Page 8

THE LEATHER MARKET.

PRICES STEADILY ADVANCING. FURTHER, RISE IN THE COST OF BOOTS IMMINENT. "There's nothing like leather!" It's an old saying, and it was never truer bhan it is to-day. Owing to the disturbed state of the leather market at Home several manufacturers who export largely to New Zealand have cabled out withdrawing quotations. Apropos this a Press Association message from Dunedin states that retail boot merchants have been advised that there will be a substantial increa -c in the price of footwear in the near fuiuTe. It is a noteworthy fact (adds the mesv age) that in nine yea.rs the price of hides has increased from 3d to Bd. , This is not welcome news for tht householder who has to boot many feet. "A steady rise has been operating for the last eighteen months," said Mr. R. Hannah, one of the b:gge&t mamifactuv- I crs in New Zealand- to a Post reporter to-day. "I can confidently assert that there is not a_ single bdot manufacturer j in the Dominion who is making money to-day. "Why," he continued, "farmers and others are gttt-ing a penny per lb more i for raw hides to-day tJiin I paid for j good leather seven "yea.r-3 ago. \boul ' that I;ime. the pike of manufactured | leather was 7id per lb; to-day hides are ] selling at Sid!" I Within lecsnt times the price of boots I in New Zealand has been twice overhauled and increased, and Mr. Hannah candidly states that av.cthsr increase will have to be mace in {he very near future. As to the cause o-f this etsady arrl abnormd riso >n the mice of hides 1'Hannah says it is largely due to the fact that America has tnken the duty off raw material, 1 and green hides are literally pouring into that country now. New Zealand, he avers, grows eufneient to supply her own. needs, but the impulse to export is strong and can only be checked by an export duty —a very unlikely contingency, Mr. Hannah thinks, owing to the disaffeclion it would create amongst the farming class. Meantime another rfee in the price of footwear is imminer.it.