TEXTILE INDUSTRY

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 107, 2 November 1926, Page 9

TEXTILE INDUSTRY

FRANCE AND GERMANY

EYE TO THE DOMINIONS.

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

LONDON, 25th September

An attack by French manufacturers upon the New Zealand textile market was mentioned at a meeting of the Huddersfield Chamber of Commerce. A letter was read from the .Fine Cloth Manufacturers' Association stating that they were informed by an agent in Wellington, New Zealand, tlu-fc owing to the depreciation in the franc the l('rcnch were able to undersell this country in New Zealand to the extent of Is fid to 2s per yard. This was in spile of the preferential tariff on British ■ Roods.

Mr. Thomas Hirst said that the outlook was serious if the French were able to undersell British manufacturers in a country where British goods had preferential treatment. It was suggested that the correspondence should be laid before the Associated Chambers, with a view to discussion at the Imperial Conference, and this was agreed to. Correspondence which had passed between a Hamburg firm and the Chamber of Manufacturers in Adelaide was read. The Hamburg firm described themselves as specialists in the manufacture of textile machinery. They were prepared, if given adequate support from Australian capitalists, to start a factory for the manufacture of textile machinery.

Mr. Thomas Hirst: "Any of our machinery makers could make the same offer. Their only object is to make money out of it as promoters. Our own machine manufacturers have a better chance of getting the ear of the Adelaide Chamber." The letter is to be forwarded to the local Engineering Association. ,