DEAR LEATHER.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 12872, 6 January 1906, Page 6

DEAR LEATHER.

PCBT OF BOOTS GOINGOUP:; f, : ' The recent telegraphed news that,,inanuf ifaeturers in this colony and ia Australia intend to raise the price of footwear, owing to the increase in the cost of hides and leather has aroused a good deal of interest outside the trade, for everyone wi*d be affected when buying new ; boots or .shoes. Enquiries have been made"elsewhere, as "to the -reasons for the -increased cost- ,of the. materials, and the; probable extent- of the" opinions seem to vary very much.Leathers are now, scarcer than they _were, andj?priceshigtier,-' and many reasons : Have been.' advanced Pursuing:■: enquiries on. the matterj a " Herald saw Mr ;S, 'Anderson, of'the timaru Boot' Eacorji yesterday."'"'"'" ''; Mr Anderson said that the bulk of the hides used locally were • of-. New Zealand manufacture; the. resfe;were.;nearly > ailing-. lishi|or French. They were all, or nearly all Sfected-.by the .increase in prices, the' rise had"been going on for some gradually and" in small steps, until now; the prices were.siich that in self defence -manu.<facturers must- increase the prices of' tlieir wares. The .smaUness of the increases ing any period prevented any augmentation of the retail prices o£, ; boots sor.far,. because ; 't4|.pnt r up prices a disorganised owing to the dis•turbance among the letailers; but it could no longer be put. off.--Australian leather manufacturers had latelv increased their quotations by to 15 "per cent. ; tbia lead was being followed here, and the whole rise had been preceded' by a hardening tone in the London market which ruled leather just as it did wheat. OH wooiK- ; .

As to the reasons of the increase, they were hard to tell with certainty, -but "two or three commended themselves as veryreasonable. Firstly,' the eastern counties especially, ond others in a less degree, were adopting European styles and usages, and leather was becoming a useful comii.wdity over a wider area than ever it was bffore • the advance of the Easterns into our civilisation had tremendously increased the market for "the necessaries of life." Then ihe American operator couid. as usud, be blamed to some extent. The American

had a typical way of doing business. He did not start a little shop and built on to it, getting his-orders first and then filling them.--*He put.up a huge factory., turned out "his goods,-, and practically compelled people *to buy them, by his methods of sellMg \yhere he could, and of sending them jwhereT ..they. -were -wanted. It was quite"-^reasonable: to suppose that recently iFstituted industries of great size were swallowing up supplies of ; hides; this" idea was supported by the avidity with -which American buyers ihad recently begun, to buy; they were now very strong competitors in the market, far more so than they were a short while ago. While the cost of the raw materials had gone up all round, that was not the only excuse the manufacturer had for charging x more for his boots; for the cost of manufacture, wages, etc., had been steadily increasing lately, and profits were much cut. down.. To make things worse, the imported footwear which for some reason was. so popular, though generally inferior to the colonial goods, was gradually replacing them. It would be a most serions thing, if Jtfew Zealand lost her boot and shoe trade,' for Mr Anderson said, it was one -of the best wage-paying industries, especially in Christchurch. The colony could easily make all the boots wanted", and make them a good-deal better than those that were imported. I After-all r! the increase .would not much affect the: consumer. Ten per cent, in the cost of. the leatiher did not mean 10 per cent, in the price of:-the boot, and the whole increase ?could not .amount "to more tbanSd or,.ls".per!pair' at the outside. It' was not intended to make a percentage increase on the prices aH round,, buS torecbst.ithe wares,, finding out the actual cost of class of boot, and adding the usual margin of_ profit ruling. Mr-''3? Mundell, when asked if he had noticed,-any. change in the market for hides, said -,that in the past few months had been an upward tendency in prices, amounting to Id in the best classes and something under., a half-penny in the ■ poorest, altogether- The quantity of hides ! put through the sales at Tiniaru had not diminished at all, but that was no tsst ,of the market, because tihis district did not produce many. There had Been no new buyers- actually dealing here,- but- most of the .hides went as usual to Dimedih, and it was; impossible for him to say-whether ,the finas there had any new clients for whom they were buying." They very likely Jiad; tfiey were much -more lively thai* tliev lnrd been for some time- past.