WOOLLEN GOODS

Southland Times, Issue 21821, 26 September 1932, Page 8

WOOLLEN GOODS

FARMERS’ CRITICISM OF COSTS. AN EMPHATIC DENIAL. At the meeting of the executive of the Southland Farmers’ Union on Friday there was a discussion (reported in our Saturday issue) on the price of manufactured woollen goods as compared with the price of the raw material. In the course of the discussion, Mr A. G. Hamilton, who moved a remit on behalf of the Lumsden branch, made the following statement: “He had been informed that as a result of the imposition last year of the surtax on woollen goods the local manufacturers had taken the opportunity to increase their prices accordingly and the cost of woollen goods was actually higher than a year ago.” Speaking to a Southland Times reporter on Saturday two local representatives of leading manufacturing firms said that the discussion generally bristled with inaccuracies and that both the manufacturers and the retailers would probably have something to say about it. In the meantime, however, they wished directly and emphatically to contradict the statement made by Mr Hamilton as quoted above. The statement that prices had been increased was absolutely contrary to fact, as everybody associated with the trade knew, and the statement that the cost of woollen goods to-day was higher than a year ago was also contrary to fact. One manager said that anyone who had seen the amounts by which he had written down his stocks of woollen goods to meet the drop in market prices would realize how substantial the reduction was and how serious it was for those holding stocks of manufactured goods.