HUGE BILL PAID FOR SILK HOSE

Evening Star, Issue 20256, 17 August 1929, Page 20

HUGE BILL PAID FOR SILK HOSE

AUSTRALIA’S NEEDS Australian women buy about 25,000,000 pairs of silk hose in a year at a cost of about £25,000,000 a year. Of course, these figures are more or - less approximate, but they are bound to ho near the mark, and the total cost is based on an average price of about 3s Gel to 4s a pair, but prices actually range from Is 6d to £3. The more expensive stockings are imported from Paris and New York, and it is strange that Great Britain should not cater for this high-class trade. Great Britain manufacturers specialise in woollen materials, and they supply Australia with the less artistic half-hose for men. Australian manufacturers have made great progress in the making of silk and artificial silk hosiery since the duty on the imported article was increased about two years ago. In one State alone—Victoria —there are at least twenty-one factories engaged in this work and employing about 1,700 hands permanently. The largest factory has GOO employees. Throughout Australia there are 4,000 people engaged in making silk stockings, and of these 75 per cent, are women. One make of stocking is produced ou what is termed a circular machine, the shaping of the leg being secured by reducing or increasing the number of stitches, and the application of a steam press made of aluminium. The machine for this purpose can be bought for £IOO. The machine for making the popular fullfashioned hose costs about £2,000. Considerable sums accrue to the Customs from imported hose, but the women of Australia, inconsiderate as they are, have not been extravagant enough to ensure that Dr Earle Pago would pass the your with a surplus. For the eleven months of the last financial year importations of hose valued at'£ 1,086,699 came from overseas to Australia, as against £1,282,699 for the corresponding period of the previous year. This decrease is accounted for by the greater activity of the local manufacturers. Taking , into account duty, profits, and the numerous other charges that are piled on to goods sold over the counter, it is probable that the women of Australia paid twice as much for these stockings. The Customs Department last year collected. £72,000 on cotton socks and stockings, £275,000 on silk hosiery, £75,000 on artificial silk hosiery, and £225,000 ou woollen hosiery.