WOOLLEN GOODS

Southland Times, Issue 18620, 19 August 1919, Page 7

WOOLLEN GOODS

JAPANESE CHEAP LABOUR. FEAR OF COMPETITION. Japanese competition in the woollen trade was touched upon by Mr W. H. P. Barber, at the annual meeting of the Wellington Woollen Manufacturing Company. He said that whilst the British manufacturer could not for some time be so formidable a rival as before for the. Dominion woollen trade, there were others overseas who still produced under conditions of low wages and very long hours. Unless held in check, they would prove a serious menace to the industrial life of this and the older county- He referred to the Japanese, and as an illustration of what might be looked for, he quoted from an English paper, which stated that the silk industry of England was threatened by th«t nation. Since 1913-14 the imports of Japanese silk had increased from about one million sterling to nearly five millions sterling per annum, which was expected to be doubled as soon as shipping became norThe wages in the Japanese silk industry have recently been raised, and they now stand at sid to lid a day for men, and 4}d to 7ld for women. Woollen manufacture in Japan was advancing rapidly, and the English Wool Record is responsible for the statement that orders from there for textile machinery to the value of eight millions sterling had been offered m England recently. In the face of such conditions it was strange that there were still to be found in New Zealand speakers and writers who refer to the industries of New Zealand as “highly protected.” The standardising of wages, as forecasted in the Treaty of Nations, was likely to prove a difficult problem. Meanwhile, it remained to be seen what action Labour would take, pending such standardising to protect those workers in New Zealand who look to benefit in the new era of profit-sharing and copartnership.