FORTUNE IN FIVE YEARS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 750, 24 August 1929, Page 29

FORTUNE IN FIVE YEARS

RUSSIAN HAS GOOD LUCK ARRIVED WITH ONLY 16/lllustrating the remarkable results which a new settler, even though a foreigner, may achieve in Australia, the Minister for Home Affairs, Mr, Abbott, recently quoted the case of Mr. M. Fetter, of Melbourne, who arrived from Jlussia in 1924 with 16s in his pocket. Today he is the owner of the Fetter Hosiery Mills, which turn out 2,000 dozen pairs of hose weekly, though only one shift is worked. Mr. Fetter quickly obtained employment in Australia, and his first IS months savings were used to bring his wife and family out. Deciding to go into some business for himself, he borrowed £2O to buy one Griswold hand machine, which had a weekly output of 10 dozen pairs of half-hose. His first order was from a. Flinders Lane firm. After a few months he moved into a little shop and bought two more machines. Within six months he was in Swanston Street premises. The hand machines had been discarded for power machines, and 20 hands were employed. Now the firm occupies a large modern factory in Lygon Street, North Carlton, equipped with automatic hosiery machines. New machinery is being installed in another factory in Holton Street, Carlton. Mi-. Fetter supplies wholesale bouses only. His story is a remarkable example of what can be achieved by thrift, courage and industry in Australia.