SHOE MANUFACTURERS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 246, 16 October 1937, Page 10

SHOE MANUFACTURERS

MINISTER’S STATEMENT CATEGORICAL DENIAL POSITION IN CHRISTCHURCH. [Per Press Association. ] CHRISTCHURCH, Oct. 15. A categorical denial o£ the contentions of the Minister oi Labour (the Hon. H. T. Armstrong), who declared that the shoe trade was enjoying a bom and employing the largest number of hands in its history, was given this morning by Mr. T. G. Shanks' chairman of the local manufacturers’ group. Mr. Shanks said that the position in Christchurch at the present moment was that the shoe industry was not at the peak of production. Factories were working short time. There were 83 dismissals in Christchurch alone during the past three months, and further dismissals Acre inevitable in the near future. “On October 1,” said Mr. Shanks, 'the Prime Minister made a statement that the Government was alive to the dangers confronting secondary industries through excessive importations. The shoe manufacturing industry is one of those most seriously affected, and is anxiously awaiting the further statement promised by the Prime Minister as to the Government's intentions."

FEDERATION STATEMENT

MR. SAVAGE’S PROMISE. WELLINGTON, Oct. 15. The Boot Manufacturers’ Federation states that in view of the Prime Minister's statement on October 1 that he hoped to make a statement within a fortnight seting out the procedure to be followed to carry out the Government's determination “not to allow men and women employed in the Dominion to be thrown out of work through the importation of commodities that should and can be made in the Dominion,” the Federation has refused to make any public disclosures of the position into which local industry has been forced through Imports. The amazing statement the Labour Minister (the Hon. H. T. Armstrong) made yesterday that the “New Zealand boot manufacturers at this very moment are at the peak of their production and are employing the highest number of hands in their history” should and will receive the disproof which its gross inaccuracy demands. However, the Federation expects that the Prime Minister will to-day keep the promise made of a statement setting out the procedure to be followed for the protection of the manufacturing industries, and accordingly feels that no good purpose would be served by replying to Mr. Armstrong to-day. The statement says that the most fitting reply had already been delivered by Mr Watts, secretary of the Federation of Boot Trade Operatives a week ago concerning Auckland conditions. “Within the past eight weeks 400 hands have been affected by short time, with the loss of wages of £22,545. These are all adult workers. Four factories are reduced to making stock. One factory has closed down, involving 27 dismissals. Altogether the state of the boot trade in Auckland is pitiful.”

The general position has fast grown worse, but the Federation is awaiting a pronouncement from the Prime Minister. It is regretted that the Minister of Labour should have used figures six months out of date in placing before the public what was purported to be the position of the industry to-day. If it was intended that the public should take the Minister’s figures as indicating the state of the boot trade to-day, it is regretted that a Minister of the Crown, particularly in view of the public statements by responsible Ministers, should endeavour to cloud the issue from the public standpoint by quoting conditions now definitely obsolete and periods so far removed from existing trade conditions.