The Union Rowing Club's Uniforms.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6649, 13 September 1889, Page 4

The Union Rowing Club's Uniforms.

The following letter appeared in the Lyttclion Times of this morning : — Sib, — I think the following extract taken from the annual report adopted at the meeting yesterday worth some consideration : — " With the view of maintaining uniformity in colour, width of hoop, &c, in the uniform worn by members, and obtaining jerseys and caps on the most favourable terms, your Committee deemed it advisable to take advantage of the visit of our Treasurer to London, and order a supply direct from the manufactories there. The new colours are expected to arrive daily, and your Committee trust that their action will meet with your approval and support." Of what value is the interesting report of the Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce, showing the growth of our industries, as recently published ? What benefits can possibly arise from the exhibitions of our Colonial manufactures, held from time to time, and for which we are asked to subscribe, and upon which the Government expends thousands of pounds, if the people will not be true to themselves and assist in the progress of our country ? Could not these uniforms have been as well and as cheaply made in New Zealand as in England? Have not the looms of the Kaiapoi, Mosgiel and Boslyn mills produced as fine cricketing and boating flannels and uniform serges »3 can be made in any part of the world, and are not our workpeople as proficient as those of the Old Country P If a question of cost be one reason for this singular action, will not the duty of 25 per cent upon clothing, added to the English invoice, make tho uniforms dearer than the Colonial P And lastly, is it not a lame excuae to say that the uniformity in colour and width of hoop could be better maintained by having the clothes made sixteen thousand milea away than in their own towns and by their own workpeople? What do these yonng New Zealandeis care for their poorer brothers and sisters, whose lives are not spent in pleasure and prosperity, and whose only Union is the labour Union to obtain something more than starvation wages. I suppose, Sir, that the members of the Union Bowing Club will feel proud at the October opening, when attired in their imported uniforms, but would it not have been more becoming, and would the pride not have been greater if they could have said, " Theae are Canterbury productions?" I hope their lady friends will bear this in mind, and let their a imiration be confined to the men and not to their English clothing when sported on the Avon. — I am, &c, NEW ZEALANDEE.