MORE ABOUT SHODDY BOOTS

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume I, Issue 144, 3 June 1911, Page 4

MORE ABOUT SHODDY BOOTS

We are pleased to notice by the Christchurch “Press” to hand on Thursday that Mf. T. E. Taylor does not intend to allow the fraud of shoddy boots to continue any longer than he can help. The “Press” interviewed him regarding the allegations made at the conference held at Christchurch on Monday, and we learn that he takes a very serious view of the matter. He said: “The selling of these boots was a fraud upon the class that could the least afford to be defrauded—they went to the poor man who was eager to get the most for his money. It could not be said that

the buyer should take precautions. In buying many articles a man could tell by inspection what he was getting. With boots it was different. The boot looked well enough—there was nothing in its outward appearance to suggest that it would neither wear nor stand the wet. Although not a bootmaker, he knew something of boots, and it was in the very places where strength was most needed that paper stiffened with shellac was introduced. It was not altogether in consequence of demands by customers that such boots were stocked. On wholesale lists, they stood at lower prices, and the retailers, by selling them, could make a small additional profit j and loss was the portion of the buyer.” The speakers at the conference stated or inferred that the shoddy article was imported, but on the best authority we learn, and we regret to say it, that manufacturers in New Zealand are not above using shoddy in the boots they pass Ukut from their factories. One proprietor of a Christchurch boot shop innocently stated: ‘ ‘As tp the fuss that was being made, it seemed, after all, a rather simple matter — a man would not or could not pay the price charged for a thoroughly reliable bootj; should he have none at all?” The obvious answer to this is that people 1 who ask for and pay for boots should be served with boots, and not with paper envelopes. What chance has a man. with a family of keeping his people properly shod if he is palmed off with footwear ranging from 12/6 to 15/- a pair, things that mush up the first day it rains. We were yesterday shown a pair of girls’ shoes broken open, and under the first sole we rooted out layer upon layer of rotten stuff which more resembled blotting paper than leather. Is it any wonder that young girls contract lung trouble and other sickness when they are compelled to wear wet sponges on their feet ? Such boots, besides being a danger to health, make cripples of the wearers, and the sooner Government takes the matter in hand and stamps out the fraud, the healthier, stronger, and wealthier will be a large section of our working class.