TAILORED SUITS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22464, 7 July 1936, Page 10

TAILORED SUITS

UNFAIR COMPETITION

EMPLOYERS' ALLEGATION

ADVICE BY COMMISSIONER

Advice to the bespoke tailoring trade to apply to the Minister of Commerce, the Hon. D. G. Sullivan, for protection against what it considered was unfair competition from manufacturers of machine-made garments, was made in tho course of tho hearing of a claim for an award before tho Conciliation Council yesterday by the commissioner, Mr. M. j. Reardon.

The claim was one brought by tailoresses against the Auckland master tailors, and the commissioner's suggestion was made as a result of remarks concerning competition by Mr. H. Preston.

Mr. Reardon said that the Minister of Industries and Commerce, was anxious that primary and secondary industries should not silffer because of external competition. If the bespoke tailoring trade felt it were hard hit by outside competition that was of an unfair nature, he was sure it had only to submit proposals and the Minister would give them every consideration, even to tho extent that new competitors would not be given a licence. Mr. Sullivan apparently took tho view that he had power under the Board of Trade Act to give redress to an industry if such would be to tho advantage of the community, said Mr. Reardon. Would it not be possible to submit some scheme whereby legitimate tailors would not suffer from competition of machine-made garments which purported to be tailor-made? Mr. Preston said a trouble was that a firm might have a clothing factory as well as a bespoke tailoring business, which might permit of irregularities. Miss A. E. Cossey (a union assessor): Could not a label be devised to distinguish a tailor-made suit from a manufactured one? That would stop the public from being had. There is no doubt a hand-sewn garment keeps its shape longer than a machine-sewn one. Mr. B. H. Kushner (an employers' assessor): We are specialists, yet manufacturers are approaching our prices though the article they serve does not approach ours in quality. Our product is becoming a luxury. Mr. Reardon: It is possible that hundreds of persons throughout the depression have been unable to purchase tailor-made clothing, but now that their economic state is being made better. they will be able to purchase again. Miss Cossey expressed the view that clothing manufacturers, who employed much youthful labour, were affected to a much greater extent than the tailoring trade by the new minimum rates of pay, a fact that would help tho tailoring trade.