SHODDY BOOTS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 9452, 27 February 1911, Page 2

SHODDY BOOTS.

MR TAYLOR'S ALLEGATIONS. ■ A few weeks ago the Canterbury; Industrial Association set up_ a committee to investigate, the allegations made in tho .House of Representatives by Mr T. E. Taylor regarding shoddy boots, and at a meeting to-day'the committee submitted its report. The committee invited Mr Taylor.to make any statement he desired on the matter. He entered very fully and courteously into the whole situation, and produced samples , of cardboard alleged .to be used in the manufacture of certain classes of colonial boots. These were the identical exhibits which were in his possession when addressing the House on the occasion referred to. Mr Taylor said that ho was satisfied from the evidence brought before him that similar materials to these were being built into hoots made by one Wellington boot manufacturer. Mr Taylor explained to the committee that his remarks intended.to refer to this individual manufacturer only and had no general reference to the boot manufacturers of the' Dominion. The statements actually made by liim had been given a general application which he had never, intended thorn to convey. The committee was satisfied that no reference bad be,cn intended to the boots manufaetured in the Canterbury industrial district but only to a class of boots manufactured by one maker in the Wellington industrial district. The secretary "had ben instructed to pass on the matter to the Wellington Industrial Association to ask them to prosecute the inquiry further by every means in their power. • The meeting considered the report, and the following resolution was adopted:—"That this Association considers it a matter for regret that general statements should have been made without due care and without necessary .explanation by Mr Taylor, M.P., from ,Ins seat in Parliament, gravely reflecting on the character of tho boot industry of the Dominion, statements which have been doing serious injury to this important industry, but \vhi".i were not borne cut by the facts in h:s . possession. These facts as shve stated by Mr Taylor before a committee of this association, point to shoddy boots being manufactured by one manufacturer only, working on a very small scale in the North Island.