BOOT IMPORTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22932, 10 January 1938, Page 7

BOOT IMPORTS

TRADE WITH DOJQNION UNITED KINGDOM VIEWPOINT THE QUESTION OF PROTECTION Representations have been made to tho New Zealand Government by United Kingdom manufacturing interests asking that no further duty should be imposed and no quota system established for the importation of footwear, according to an announcement by the Bureau of Importers. A statement prepared by tho secretary of the Federated Associations of Boot and Shoe Manufacturers of Great Britain and Ireland is quoted. The statement, which details representations made to tho Minister of Finance, the Hon. W. Nash, says that since 1934 the New Zealand footwear industry has expanded and flourished, but the boom period of late 1936 and early 1937 is over. Reports from many United Kingdom manufacturers show that orders for New Zealand have fallen off. The position of the New Zealand industry is stated to be due to overstocking by wholesalers who bought in excess of normal requirements for fear a rising market was going to advance still more. Tho statement says New Zealand costs are understood to have risen by 10 per cent but, since the tariff adjustment in 1934, United Kingdom costs have gone up by approximately the samo amount. Hours have been reduced from 48 to 46 a week and will again be lowered next June to 45 hours. The combined effect of the reduction in hours and the rise in wages will bo that the wage rates will, by June, have increased by 14.7 per cent for male day workers and 22.8 per cent for female day workers.

The combined effect of tariff, depreciation of New Zealand exchange, freight and marketing expenses, it is stated, is that the landed cost in New Zealand in Dominion currency is 70 per cent above the United Kingdom factory cost in United Kingdom currency., It :s suggested that the question of the imposition of a quota is not a matter which can be decided merely on the circumsances of the boot and shoe industry but on broad grounds of policy.