DEARER GOODS
MORE RISES LIKELY EARLY IN NEW YEAR MANUFACTURERS' PREDICTION EFFECT OF LABOUR COSTS In the opinion of a number of manufacturers, there will be further price increases early in the new year for many classes of goods manufactured in New Zealand. Many industrialists, they state, are only just beginning to ascertain the full effect 011 the cost of their manufactures of clearer labour, caused both by higher wages and shorter hours.
This tendency would not be welcomed by the public, but least of all by manufacturers, who realised fully that in many instances higher prices would react in favour of the imported article, it was stated. The more the output of Dominion-made goods was affected by this cause, the higher would bo the relative labour costs. It would be very unwise to assume that the present spurt in industry was on a very solid foundation.
For example, the clothing trade under a 40-hour week was extraordinarily busy, yet the fact remained that it was behind with its orders, and many retailers who formerly purchased all their requirements from local sources were now importing, because they could •either not get firm prices from NewZealand manufacturers or guarantees of prompt deliveries. In all the circumstances. if the Government was not prepared to relax its industrial legislation, it should examine the tariff situation very thoroughly and be prepared to act quickly in this respect, / Any further rise in the cost of living us anticipated may not solely be accounted to local conditions. One retail merchant dealing in ironware said prices overseas had been advancing steadily, but it had not been possible lip to now to pass on all these to the public in piecemeal scale, because the question of stocks in hand, both by himself and by competitors, had to be tj*ken into consideration. However, conditions had developed when a 10 per cent general retail rise would be justified, and he intended to mark up stocks accordingly very soon after Christmas. ' ——————
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Bibliographic details
New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22596, 8 December 1936, Page 12
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330DEARER GOODS New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22596, 8 December 1936, Page 12
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