BOOT INDUSTRY

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXI, 19 October 1937, Page 6

BOOT INDUSTRY

SLACK CONDITIONS AT CHRISTCHURCH MINISTER OF LABOUR INSPECTS FACTORIES GOVERNMENT CONSIDERING PROBLEM [By Telegraph— Ptcbs AsKor.iationl CHRISTCHURCH, This Day. A depressing picture of conditions in the boot manufacturing industry in Christchurch was presented to the Minister of Labour, flic Hon. H. 1. Aimstrong, this morning, when he visited two of the leading factories. The object of the Minister’s visit was to see at first hand the difficulties confronting the industry in order to try and get at the root cause of the trouble. He explained that the Government wanted to be sure that any steps it took to assist the industry were the right ones. The present slackness in the trade, the Minister was told by the principals of the firms, developed very suddenly. They were at a loss to account for such a sudden falling off in orders, but they did know that imports, particularly from Britain, had • increased very substantially. The manager of one factory said he thought, his concern would be able to weather the storm, but to-day 60 men and 15 women had been stood off for the day and to-morrow 20 men and 30 women would be oil for the day. In another factory the amount paid out in weekly wages had dropped b.y £7O a week. ’’Our employees are losing wages and we are losing the value of their production,” the manager remarked. It was impressed on the Minister that the conditions to-day were much worse than they had been during the depression years, as the orders were not coming in and stocks were accumulating. The manager mentioned Ihc c j of a man who asked to be dismissed because he would do better drawing sustenance than working such short 'ime at the factory. The Minister was much impressed with what he saw and remarked that the Government had the problem under consideration.