A NEW INDUSTRY.

Timaru Herald, Volume XC, Issue 13279, 7 May 1907, Page 6

A NEW INDUSTRY.

CHAIRS AND PERAMBULATORS. That limaru requires .more manufacturing industries may ne Heard at any pubm ii-i-A-Siug ac whicn tlie progress and -proa; perity of the Lown ai« uiscussed. vvv. iiiaeioie, take pleasure in drawing atienton to ihe iact tiiat a new industry' tins just been established lisie, and in recommending the public to consider the advisability ox applying to its products tha principle "Encourage local lhdusirkii." A good many years have elapi-cd tinea the lata .air George Hedges began business in limaru as a ■wicker-worker, in chairs and baskets chiefly, importing canes of course, and growing his own -willows on a piece of suitable swamp land at Milford. Since the founder's death the business has been carried on by his son Mr G. H. Hedges. Quite recently, without any flourish of trumpets, Mr Hedges has launched out on a new line, tha manufacturing of perambulators and go-carto, and other kinds of useful and ornamental furniture. For this purpose it has bsen necessary to enlarge Jin premises, and this ha has done- ,by taking several rooms at the rear of Rawitorn's engineering shop. A "Herald" reporter looked through the -workshops yesterday, and war. agreeably mrprhrd at the amorr.t '>? material in. stock, tlio number and variety of articles completed and in process of completion, rnrl tit-, air of indvstvy that pervades the shops. In one place two basket makers vrcr? bury on willow chairs. In another r, workman was daftly covering a wooden fraivewnrk with windings of split cane, and plaited palm-leaf rirr.et. to form the ornamental txttrior of a pram. Fvr-thc-r on, the foreman of the new business, Mr Clark (a man of 14 years experience ::i iliis line) was fitting springs and wheels, and in tha next room Mrs Clark and an

assistant were fixing the pretty upholstering of another. Specimens of the completea child's carriage, and of several kinds of wicker work articles are on view in the front shop, and the go-carts are equal to appearance to any that are now to be seen in the streets. The important' part about these articles, from a local industries point of view, is that nearly every part iti ma.au from the raw materials. Tho only parts o± go-cart*> which it is necessary to import ready-made are wheels and axles. These could not be made cheaply enough in the colony as the demand for them would not keep a plant going, bprings of any partem are made at a blacksmith s forge, out 61 suitable bar-steel, and the woodwork is all prepared oh the premises or at the. adjacent sawmill. The cane and bamboo, and palm-leaf sinnet arc necessarily imported, also the upholstering cloths, the brass fittings for the hood's and ornamental handles. Mr Hedges points out an anomaly in the Customs tarkf, affecting the business, which should be remedied. The springs, which he cak 'and does make himself, are duty free, while the rubber-tired which ia impossible f,o make, bear a duty of 20 per cent. Mr Hedges has an 1 osier farm at Belfast as well as the one at Milford, and . pointed out A great difference in the product of the' two farms. The Waimakariri silt land grows a much finer and tougher osier than the clay land at Milford, where tha rods grow' much larger and coarser in the grain. Both kinds,- however, are required in his business. The. demand for wicker chairs has been very satisfactory, Mr Hedges himself wondering where they all go .to, and the sight of a score-of them drying in the sun in the yard beside the shop, may well arousethe same wonder in passers-by. At present. Mr Hedges cm. ploys seven persons in the workshops, and in the interests of the progress of Timarn, it is to be hoped that the number will be soon increased. •._■'.'.