Clothing Should be More Plentiful

Grey River Argus, 18 October 1948, Page 7

Clothing Should be More Plentiful

Napier, October 15. New Zealand clothing manufacturers are now past the critical period of shortage which existed during and I'ter th e war. . This information was given by the president of the New Zealand Council of Garment Manufacturers’ Federations, Mr J. J. Delahunt, when speaking to the council’s annual conferehce tonight. Supplies of major raw materials had improved considerably, he said.. Though British manufacturers were making all-out efforts to export to hard currency countries, they had recovered sufficiently from war-time set-backs to almost completely solve New Zealand’s shortages of materials. Materials still in short supply were heavier cloths for industrial clothing, flannels, winceyette and flanelette, he said. He urged the council to have up-to-date production figures readily available. This would provide valuable information for the manufacturers themselves as well as aiding in discussions with the Government. There had been some redistribution of labour within the various brackets of the industry but in numbers the labour force had remained .practically stable over the last year, he said. -

He claimed that the present system of price control prevented the lowering of prices of every-day essential garments.