WOOLLEN GOODS SCARCE.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume X, Issue 17, 3 January 1920, Page 7

WOOLLEN GOODS SCARCE.

LOCAL SUPPLIES INADEQUATE. A DIFFICULT PROBLEM.

SHORTAGE OF SUITINGS.

The scarcity of woollen goods in* New Zealand at • present is - giving fiiany people food for Serious thought, and' it would appear that the question of obtaining a decent suit of clothes at a fairly reasonable price is going to become even more difficult of solution than it has been during the past 19 months. . Imports from England of woollen materials of the kind that -is suitable for clothing have 1 fallen off to a very large extent, not because, of any lack of demand, - but because of the high prices that are -asked for - the goods made at Home. These prices are said to be so high in many -instances that it does not pay . to import them and make them into suits here,’ for ’the reason that to do so would* moan that the suits would be absolutely prohibitive in price except to a ’ very few. Moreover,- the 'prices are .steadily advancing - at Home, ■ and there ■ is no guarantee that the prices quoted there, say, today - will be the same five or six weeks hence. Ono firm in Auckland recently cabled-Home for some-worsted suitings at a price quoted. About five weeks later ’they' received advice that since the order had been sent this particular material hhd : advanced 3/-. per yard--. There appears .to be not stability in the market, and those who might be otherwise-'inclined to- buy are not indined to take chances on a market the chief characteristic of which is a tendency on the part ■ ? of . prices to jump higher and- hiriier. There are some- people here-who have no’ hesitation in saying .that these high'prices are not caused wholly by any -increase in-wages that may-have taken'place at Home, but that some Of-the people who have controT'uf the-goods in* the Old Country are deliberately profiteering and making the most of the scarcity. THE READY-MADE SUIT. There remains t the .fact, ■ however, that bbcause'of the high prices at Home of these goods an unprecedented , demand has set in for . materials made in New Zealand mills. Prior to the war the woollen mills , here were asked to supply, roughly abofit one-third of the Dominion’s requireihehts, but at. present they were practically asked to supply the whole of the local-requirements. As a result they were not- able ’ to -keep up With the demand, and a number-of warehouses and other - places had been seriously ’put to it to supply their customers.- One of the effects of the scarcity is the demand for ready-made-suits —a demand which even at pretent exceeded the supply. One,firm . .that did a considerable'business'in* this-di-rection had'completely sold" out 'bV Christmas- Eve,, and people,.were' still coming in for more. Present ti<ms were that.the ready-made suit was going to be* still- unless ' some relief was found fdr the tenrifin’ that 1 exiBted - R .*.‘2d

It is this scarcity that has led several large tmsiMtt. cenwrtis uf Auckland to purchase some oxthe Southern woolten mills. They had pfactitemy «o option but to do so if their*bttunet* was to be kept going to rayilritig like its full capacity. And while this may solve the difficulty to a considerable extent for the firms'*Concerned, it .-does not solve the difficulty for'others., It tends rather to increase them, because the stippliei they were in the habit of getting from these mills will now in all probability -be cut -off. • -It is .a complex question, and ‘.the solution is not yet in sight-—(Auckland “Star.”)