BRITISH DYE INDUSTRY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 15885, 5 April 1915, Page 4

BRITISH DYE INDUSTRY.

The announcement in to-day s , cablegrams that the shares in the British Dyers, Ltd., are to be allotted will be received with satisfaction by all who are engaged in |the clothing trades throughout the [British Empire. It indicates the jpiactical initiation of a national scheme, with an immediately avail- | able capital of £2.000.000 to provide ; the enormous supplies of d.vcstuffs 'which were formerly drawn from ! Germany. One of the gravest rej proachcs levelled against British industry during recent years is that •Germany has been allowed to create !almost a monopoly in the production of synthetic dyes. The out ! break of war placed in jeopardy industries totalling annually some £•200.000.000. and employing 1,500,000 ' people, for out of £2.000.000 worth 'of synthetic dyes used yearly in Great Britain and Ireland, about ' £ ,800,000 worth came from German makers. lor some months a com- , mittee of dye users has been co-oper-ating with the Board of Trade in an effort to devise a national scheme to supply the needs of the users of aniline dyes and the allied trades. The first proposal met with considerable objection, and a modified j scheme was announced in February ! providing for a company with a : capital of £2,000,000, of which I £1.000,000 will be issued in the first ! instance. The Government will j make to the company a loan for 25 iyears corresponding to the amount I of share capital subscribed up to a I total of £1,000,000, and in a smaller j proportion beyond that amount, j Interest is to be paid at the rate of j•1 per cent., out of net profits only, and is to lie cumulative only after • the first five years There will be i 'id compulsory sinking funds, but the dividend on the shares will be 'limited to (3 per cent, on the paid-up (share capital so long as any part of ( lie Government's advance is outstanding. In order to promote research, the Government has undertaken to make ten annual grants, I not exceeding in the aggregate : I £100.000, to the company for experimental and laboratory work. Two i of the. directors are, to be nominated ' i !I by the Government- There are a few successful dye-makers in i j England, and the Trade Com:(inittec is confident that by [i acquiring and rapidly extending the I 1 existing factories, by erecting a new ■, plant, on a large scale and by I co-operating with Swiss makers, the i national industry can be placed !n an - unassailable position with scope for • bold enterprise in the friendly mar- • kcts of the Allied and neutral countries.