THE CLOTHING TRADE

Evening Post, Volume XCVIII, Issue 146, 18 December 1919, Page 10

THE CLOTHING TRADE

WHY DRAPERY IS SO DEAR

POOR.PROSPECTS OF LOWER

PRICES.

The wholesale drapery business has felt and continues to feel the effects of war probably more than any other. In his cost-of-living tables the Government Statistician deals with three groups—groceries, dairy produce, and meat. Ho also takes rant, fuel, and light as two groups. But he does not in his tables show the effect of the extreme prices current for drapery goods aild clothing generally upon the high cost of living. All the Statistician's groups for 1919 show advances over those of 1918 and very substantial advances over those of 1914; but the housewife wanting more flannel, more sheeting, more cotton goods generally, can tell a tale that makes the pound look something like 12s or less when she comes out of the draper's shop. How-is it, now that the war is over, prices rise instead of fall? There are several answers to £he question. Manufacturers of cotton piece goods and woollens point to increased prices of raw material and • higEcr wages with shorter hours and lessened production. To wholesale houses in New Zealand they furnish additional information, either directly or through their London representatives. This usually comes by cable. Here is a specimen received by a Wellington house:— »

" European and Continental buyers stripped the market here." And another: " Useless to cable hosiery, haberdashery. Output restricted." A third : " Prices in all departments advancing. Limited choice left fancy dress cottons."

Other cable advices, all received since 6th December, go to show that manufacturers are booked up with orders that will take them a full year to execute. New Zealand's is a more fraction of the trade that Manchester and Bradford do with the world. Orders are only accepted to be executed in rotation, and if at any price at all then at heavy advances on rates ruling' only a few weeks ago.

Importers here acknowledge that they are quite in the dark as to the future. In one instance an order was sent for sheeting, asking that the price be confirmed by cable. A price was confirmed. It was 75 per cent, above that the sender of the cable had in mind when it waa despatched.

In these circumstances it does not seem at all likely that lower prices for cotton and- woollen clothing will rule for some time to come. Looms have been idle while men have been fighting; and the cost of production from the cotton pod to the finished piece has i advanced, and there are no indications of a fall.

In one way ths New Zealand Customs tariff has added its turn on the screw of the cost of living Concrete instances ware given by a New Zealand importer. The Customs charge duty on, say, tea or cigars at bo much per pound, irrespective of first cost. Not so with what are called ad valorem duty. They are taxed on their present, war, or extreme prices, and their value. Here are some of the duties paid in 1914 and paid now on identical goods:

These were but a few of hundreds of instances in which the ad valorem duty on necessities that cost long prices in their countries of origin intensified theiv cost when they went into New Zealand consumption^ To whatever heights the prices may go the duties go up with them. Thin, the importer conceded, was good for the revenue, but a heavy burden on the cost of living. The prospects for any reduction of prices of drapery, according to advices received here from manufacturing centres, are not at all rosy. Foreign-made goods are advanced in sympathy with British, so that no relief is to be expected from that quarter, even were it desirab.U.

People may go shabbier and economise more, but trading returns so far go to show that they will pay the • price to get the goods, no matter what it may be. So long as they do that so long will the retailer and wholesaler be justified in supplying the goods; but both are showing signs oi uneasiness as to the future,; and buying ahead was never more difficnlt than it is to-day.

, . 1914. 1919. Duty. Duty. s. d. b. d. Men's socks, per iot ... 2 2i 9 3 Womeh'a'hose ...110 5 11 Women's cashmere hose 5 2J 19 6 Women's gloves 9 10J 43 2i Men's Balbriggan shirts 2 64 7 ' 0i