THE PRICE OF BOOTS

Timaru Herald, Volume CVI, Issue 16232, 30 March 1917, Page 3

THE PRICE OF BOOTS

ADVANCE IN LEATHER. | .AN EXPERT'S OPINION. Speaking yesterday to a representative of one of the leading; boot warehouses in the Dominion, a "Herald" reporter was informed that a further rise has just taken place in footwear, equal to from, J.oto :Z\) per cent., according to the quality of the leather used. Where New Zealand leathers are made use of there has been a continual increase since the start of the war in the cost of labour, both as regards actual payment for time, and also insufficiency of output, due- to taking on unskilled or over-age workers. The overhead running expenses /also have a; continuously upward tendency. The importation of boots right from September 1914 showed alarming advances, and. whilst the retailers to some extent advanced the price to meet the rise on the, imported article, the New Zealand manufacturers as far as possible kept, price of the locally-made boot', and asked the retailer, and ultimately; the general public, to share with them a portion of the increased cost. By degrees, however, the New Zealand makers' have let their increasing cost catch up oh their wholesale list, particularly where imported leathers,. like glace kid, had to be used. ■ This particular leather, which practically-is solely used for the uppers of\ the lighter footwear, has increased enormously in price, as the successive producing markets were shut off by the.- operations of the war. Germany, the "Austrian Tyrol, the Balkans, and south-western Russia have gradually' been stopped"from exporting, till now India and the United States of America' are practically alone in sending these leathers.'--to Zealand. It was therefore ho wonder that the "pl;iee of glace kid-;• footwear was going .up from 15 to 20 per cent. The heavier kinds of; boots made from" New Zealand leathers would show an advance of about 10 pei< cent., and the 'medium styles wouldfrun, from 10 to 15 per cent. As far. as) can be seen at present, these increased prices would certainly rule till the end of the war. '"Yes," said the commercial man, "it seems a bad proposition for the gene>ral public. But there is no getting away from the figures; and war or no war, a factory must pay the producing cost, or close up. The public to- some extent have, tiii the present war, obtained their boots and shoes at really cut prices in New Zealand, and you can prove this by", unsuccessful boot manufacturers who have left their factories and warehouses standing empty as a monument of too keen pricing throughout the length and breadth or New Zealand. Take a man's boot that was at one time sold for 255, and imagine the processes that it had to go through before it-'was ready-to commence it's life work. Compare this boot with a man's soft hat, sold at a similar price, ' and you will see that there are other branches, of human necessaries that charged .infinitely more than the boot manufacturer. Whv the manufactured cost—and, mind you' am "o* speaking of the wholesale cost __to. the New Zealand importer or retailer—of some of these felt hats which are now sold at 35s to 003, is not more -than ,6s to apiece "