THE PRICE OF BOOTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13070, 9 January 1906, Page 6

THE PRICE OF BOOTS.

Dearer boots (say.-, a London paper) have been threatened for some time, but wo far no member of the retail trade lias ventured to take the step of raising prices. Week by week the correspondents of the Shot) and Leather Record, in the principal bootmaking centres, have sounded the warning to the sellers and the public. Hide dealers have put up their prices to the tanners, the latter have passed the increase on to the manufacturers, who in turn are steadily refusing to make boots ait old prices. Only the retailers lind it dilhcult to add anything to the price of the manufactured leather. Short supplies, due to the demands of the Russo-Japanese Avar, ate at the bottom of -ho trouble. Something has been made, 100, of the new uses to which leather is now put—namely, for motor caff coverings and motor .clothing. Relief might be felt if working men could be induced to weai the German clog, and attempts are being made to import these heavy wooden-soled boots with leather uppers lined with felt. The trade us, however, forestalled by English makers, who provide a similar article of excellent home make for the lishcrineu and long-shoremen, who are the chief wearers of it. Experts etaite that the old handy English clog is actually going out of wear, following the discarded "pattens" of our grandmothers. Even among mill workers m the north the " clang of the wooden shoon " will soon cease to be.