Woollen Manufactures.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume XVIII, Issue 1680, 2 March 1885, Page 2

Woollen Manufactures.

It is almost well to bear steadily in mind that tho manufacture of woollen goods will, ere long, become one of the chief industries of the colony, becau.m the raw material exists in abir hmce in our midst, while there is every natural facility for establishing woollen manufactories. Dr Hector, in his report laid before Parlia ment with respect to the late Christchurch Exhibition, remarks :—“ At present the manufacture of woollen goods has hardly reached the stage of supplying local consumption, as we find from the last statistical returns available (1882) that woollen cloths and hosiery were imported to the value of nearly £200,000 m one year. But a still greater obstruction to the deve lopment of this important industry is to be found in the fact that made-up articles of wearing apparel were imported in the same year to tho value of £287,000. An attempt to defeat the competition created by these slop goods is perhaps one of the few direc tions in which protective legislation would be justifiable, as a further development of the business of making up articles of clothing would be the means of affording permanent employ ment to the large towns for these classes of people that are at present tending to become a burden. The preference shown for imported slop goods has no deeper foundation than ignorance and prejudice, as it is be~ yond all doubt that clothing made of colonial fabrics and in the colony are, quality for quality and price for price, more lasting, and far more suited to the requirements of the country than most of the imported goods.”