FASHIONS IN "PRAMS."

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21136, 19 March 1932, Page 14

FASHIONS IN "PRAMS."

BRITAIN HAS A BOOM. EFFECT OF LOW BIRTH-RATE. The falling birth-rate in Britain, strangely enough, has led to a boom in perambulators. The number of makers of perambulators has increased from 50 before the war to 250 to-day, and when the trade depression ends the number may go on growing. In a London showroom crowded with the luxurious two-wheel, foot-brake, bal-loon-tyred, chromium-plated 1932 babycoaches the manager said lately that in the old days one perambulator served for a large family, but that modern parents, who have only one, or possibly two, children, liko to give them several " prams." " Many children," the manager said, " have the big luxury baby carriage for ceremony, a collapsible perambulator for motor-trips, and a jolly sort of deckchair on wheels for the seaside. " The really modern mother favours the big-wheel baby carriage." " The best people," it appears, are sticklers for black " prams," and the yellow and purple horrors belong, the informant added, to " the new rich." One thing puzzles the perambulator trade. The rush season for the cheaper makes lasts from February to Juno, but the " elite " buy perambulators in the autumn.