DOMINION HOMES WELL CARPETED

Southland Times, Issue 23674, 24 November 1938, Page 7

DOMINION HOMES WELL CARPETED

LARGE IMPORTATIONS KIDDERMINSTER EXPERT’S VISIT New Zealand homes are perhaps the best carpeted in the world; at any rate, New Zealand imports more carpets a head of population than any other country, according to Mr G. b. Tomkinson, 0.8. E., Kiddermins , who was in Wellington recently. . He is making a survey of conditions m the carpet trade in New Zealand. , Mr Tomkinson belongs to a ianuij closely associated with- the de Y e i?P" ment of the carpet trade m Great Britain. His father introduced the axminster carpet process of manufacture into England. Kidderminster, his home town, produces half the carpets made in Britain. He himself is principal of the four biggest carpet-mak-ing firms in the Old Country, employing 1400 workers. . . i He was Mayor of Kidderminster in 1929, and was for 10 years chairman of the Housing Committee and for two years president of the Kidderminster Chamber of Commerce. He served with distinction in the Great War, enlisting as a private in 1914, and rising to colonel in 1918. He was decorated with the Military Cross. Mr Tomkinson said that they had been weaving carpets in Kidderminster for 400 years. Originally, of course, the industry was carried out with hand-looms, manufacturing bombazines and plushes. The carpet industry .aS known today dated back about 100 years. The oldest firm there was about 120 years old. Mechanical processes were introduced in the early 'sixties, when the power loom was devised. His father’s introduction of the axminster process was regarded as one of the romances of the industry, he said. He had received word that in the United States of America a process had been evolved, and an ideal loom perfected, whereby a carpet could be woven with all tjie wool on top, eliminating the wasteful methods then m use. He at once rushed to the United States, and was fortunate enough to secure the original patents for axminster carpets. DOMINION’S DEMAND Mr Tomkinson said that he was astonished at the figures for the imports of carpets into New Zealand. No other country used so many a head of population. A curious feature was that the styles did not change. Floral patterns were still in demand, whereas in England for some time they had been displaced by simple modern designs, and open grounds. Oriental carpets were still ablp to compete on the English market, nr particular Indian goods. They were produced by hand under very primitive labour conditions, by workers at incredibly low wages, and they were imported into England free of duty—though 25 per cent, was levied on English carpets going to India. About 1,750,000 square yards of Indian carpets were imported last year, as against 30,000,000 to 40,000,000 yards produced by the English industry. Mr Tomkinson showed a cinema film of the carpet industry to Wellington business men. Among those who attended the screening were the Minister of Finance (the Hon. W. Nash), the president of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce, Mr P. E. Pattrick and the British Trade Commissioner, Mr R. Boulter.