FOOTWEAR INDUSTRY

Evening Star, Issue 22780, 15 October 1937, Page 8

FOOTWEAR INDUSTRY

MINISTER’S STATEMENTS RESENTED BUSINESS IN A BAD WAY The statement issued by the Minister of Labour (the Hon. H. T. Armstrong) to the effect that the footwear industry is experiencing a boom period is strongly resented by local manufacturers; “ The whole position has been laid before Mr Sullivan, the Minister of Industries and Commrece, and he at least is aware of its seriousness,” said one raanufacutrer. “Mr Armstrong should have consulted him before making a statement that is absolutely contrary to fact. The inference is that there is a complete lack of co-operation between the Ministers or that they are at personal variance.” The result of inquiries made this morning certainly discounts the Minister’s statement. Every one of the local footwear manufacturers is experiencing considerable difficulty in keeping the present hands occupied; indeed, they cannot be kept going on full time. A leading representative of the Dunedin trade group of the New Zealand Footwear Manufacturers’ Association said that not even during the lowest point of the depression was his factory working under such restricted conditions as it was at present. He had been farced to reduce his staff by 25 per cent, since September because orders were not coming in. The remainder of Ids staff is working on half-time. The wages book was produced for the reporter’s inspection, and it certainly bore out the story most unpleasantly. “ None of us wishes to reduce the staff,” said this representative. “ The larger the staff we have, nautrally the better for business, and we are not likely to reduce unless we have to. This Government, promised that if the restoration of wage cuts and the adoption of the 40-hour week tended to hamper business, business would be aided, but nothing at all has been done. We do not mind the 40-hour week in the slightest, nor do we object to paying higher wages, but the conditions of business must be such that these things are reasonably fair. As it is, English shoes are being dumped on to the market over a 25 per cent, exchange at prices with which we cannot compete. It is ridiculous for the Government to insinuate that we are not dismissing men, for every one of the men dismissed applies at once for relief work, and their last occupation has to be stated.”

These views seem to be generally held. '

Regarding the Minister’s allegations that manufacturers were importing shoes instead of making them, and consequently adversely affecting the position, the reporter was told that this again was entirely wrong. _ The policy of the largest firm in this city was to import only those classes of footwear for which there was a strictly limited demand and which it would not pay them to manufacture. As another manufacturer put it: “We are not likely to cripple our own businesses by importing that which we are in business to manufacture.” AWAITING PREMIER’S STATEMENT LABOUR MINISTER’S GROSSLY INACCURATE [Per United Press Association.] WELLINGTON, October 16. The (Boot Manufacturers’ Federation states that in view of the Prime Minister’s statement of October 1 that ho hoped to make a statement within a fortnight setting out the procedure to be followed to carry out tho Government’s determination “ not to allow men and women employed in the Dominion to be thrown out of work through the importation of commodities that should and can be made in the Dominion,” tho federation has refused to make any public disclosures of the position into which the local industry has been forced through imports. Tho amazing statement that the Labour Minister, Mr Armstrong, made yesterday that “ The New Zealand boot manufacturers at this very moment are at the peak of their production, and are employing the highest number of hands in their history,” should, and will, receive the disproof which its gross inaccuracy demands. However, the federation expects that the Prime Minister will to-day keep'his promise and make a statement setting out the procedure to be followed for the protection of the manufacturing industries, and accordingly feels that no good purpose would be served by replying to Mr Armstrong to-day. The statement says that the most fitting reply has already been delivered by Mr Watts, secretary of the Federation of Boot Trade Operatives a week ago concerning Auckland conditions. “ Within the past eight weeks four hundred hands have been affected by short time, with a loss of wages of £2,545. These are all adult workers. Four factories are reduced to making stock, and one factory has closed down, involving 27 dismissals. Altogether the state of the boot trade in Auckland is pitiful.” The general position has fast grown worse, but the federation is awaiting the pronouncement from the Prime Minister. It regretted that the Minister of Labour should have used figures six months out of date in placing before the public what purported to be the position of the industry to-day. If it was intended that the public should take the Minister’s figures as indicating the state of the boot trade to-day, it was regretted that a Minister of the Crown, particularly in view of tho public statements by responsible bodies and tho admissions of responsible Ministers, should endeavour to cloud the issue from the public standpoint by quoting conditions now definitely obsolete and periods so far removed from existing trade conditions.