HIGH PRICES

Timaru Herald, Issue 170299, 19 August 1920, Page 5

HIGH PRICES

WOOLLEN GOODS,

A MANUFACTURER'S REMARKS.

Per Press Association-

WELLINGTON, August 18. Speaking at -the annual meeting of the Wellington "Woollen Gofnpaiyy to-day the chairman (Mr W. H. P. Barber) referred to the increase in the price of goods. He assorted that the woollen manufacturers of New A;.«dancl wero conducting operations strictly o.i lines of fair trading, and were not lidung* advantage of the situation. That selling prices the world cner were so .high was a calamity, but it was a fact that Now Zealand i• • •'' 1 prices, r.iLon on an ultra-conservative basis, were at least one-half any of those for similar imported articles. Grey woollen textiles, adulterated or not, a*.d no natter where produced, if en E.ilc at retail shops, seemed to ho chssed by the public as "colonial," wnh. unfair results to tho woollen companies. Referring to a ;-tatement that the farmer received for his w.-ol led per lb, and that one yard r.f cloth contained lib of wool, while suits of ehtbes were sold at £lB, Mr Harbor said it might be that some qualities of wool did not realise more than 2.5 d per lb, and that some tailors were s>h'ing suits f.t £lB, hut it was the deliberate- cc upiing of the two assertion inferentially accusing mill owners of profiteering to which he took strong exception. No cloth ever left the. Petone mills at a price that would justify such a .retail charge for a suit. As to 'imported tweeSs, that was another matter, which could he best answered by the tailors concerned. His personal opinion was that* excluding 'a. financial panic, which would be a- cure, but unfortunately worse than the disease, tho only thing that would reduce prices was production. In the ■wool combing industry in F'-rnco normal conditions were almost entirely restored, as a result of working 24 hours per day of three shifts. -Seventy-six other branches of trade did the same, and it would not he long heforc competition -would -make itself felt. The tendency in New Zealand was for % shorter working Week, and even now the cutting out of Saturday mornings was being used by some employers to attract workers, regardless of other cor.sequences, such as the limitation of output-. The great war started the raising of pricesT but he had heard that Labour generally had power to say when high prices should close, not by obstacles, but by allowing that machinery and capital might be employed to the fullest capacity, so that within a- short period, without any reduction of wages, Production would increase and competition bring us back to normal conditions, when supply and demand would settle these economic problems of inflation, whether or not due to super- . abundance of paper currency.