THE BOOT TRADE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11825, 30 November 1901, Page 5

THE BOOT TRADE.

A GLOOMY OUTLOOK.

[BY TELEGRAPH. —OWN" CORRESPONDENT.] Wellington, Friday. In Wellington, and in other centres of the colony, the boot manufacturers are shortening hands, and by the steamer which left Wellington on Saturday last a large number of bootmakers left for Sydney to try their luck in the New South Wales capital, where, on account of the operation of the Federal tariff, the bootmaking industry has received a temporary impetus. A Times reporter ha 3 been malting some inquiries as to the cause of the exodus, and he finds that what was once a prominent New Zealand industry is in danger of extinct-ion, on account of the operation of the labour laws, which have not only enabled the Workmen to exact from the employers what the latter claim to be a greater amount of wages than can fairly be paid, but which have resulted in the imposition by the Conciliation Boards and Arbitration Court of all sorts of rules and regulations which practically give over the control of the manufactories to the employees, and constitute the employer a mere wage-finder; while the Employers' Liability Acts heap up worries and responsibilities often far mora onerous than those which would, under ordinary circumstances, fairly attach to the conduct of business. The result is that some of the employers have determined to quietly 'get out of the manufacturing business, and to become importers, pure and simple. One of them said:—"We simply cannot ttevelop a manufacturing trade on present lines. Development means more hands to be employed; more hands to be employed means more wages, more insurance risles, and, worst •of all, an incessant round of trade disputes, and right on the top of all an increasing competition from manufacturers outside." The tremendous impetus which the American boot trade has taken of late, and the large demand which there is in, the colonial, and even the British market for the American article, makes it almost impossible for our manufacturers to cany the trades union handicap, and beat off Uncle Sam.