WHY SHIRTS REMAIN IN SHORT SUPPLY

Greymouth Evening Star, 11 July 1947, Page 3

WHY SHIRTS REMAIN IN SHORT SUPPLY

“A deadlock seems to have been reached between the manufacturers and the price control authorities in many lines, and, as usual, the retailers and the public whom they serve are the sufferers,” declares the official journal of the New Zealand Retailers’ Federation.

“The deadlock has resulted in almost total cessation- of production in some lines, because manufacturers simply will not make up - at the margin allowed. They assert that the Price Tribunal’s margin of legitimate profit is unreasonably low. This is so well known in the trade that it scarcely calls for emphasis. “Most notorious of these shortages is that of men’s neglige shirts with detachable collars. Of these the New Zealand market is virtually barren, and yet it is known that there are hundreds of thousands of yards of attractive shirtings in the bulk stores. Manufacturers with inadequate staffs argue that they cannot go into production with men’s shirts (except in certain fancy and sports lines) at the fixed price—and so there are no shirts! It is quite simple. “Other lines are also annoyingly short or out of stock. ' Overgrowth of certain non-essential manufacturing industries which skim off the number of available operatives in factories by competing on the severely restricted labour market is a contributing factor to this unhappy situation. Long-established concerns producing the Dominion’s essentials needs have been placed at a grave disadvantage by reason of this competition.”