BREEZES

Wairarapa Daily Times, 10 December 1937, Page 5

BREEZES

The Drawback. “If I were a dictator I would give three hundred and sixty-five holidays a year.” “Don’t' be a fool —then we should have to work a whole day every four years. ’ ’ * * * * The Small Trader. “A small trader, whether he be a shopkeeper, a newsagent or a tailor, has a constant -and more or less urgent need for working capital. His turnover is seldom large. However casual his customers may be, he himself must be punctual ha the payment of rent, wages and other fixed charges, and he cannot count on much grace from the wholesalers from whom he buys his stock. At the same time, it is extremely difficult for him to refuse credit without losing business. His best customers, whom he knows to be comfortably .off, will take umbrage and go elsewhere if he takes the just and theoretically prudent line, of denying them credit after a certain point of indebtedness has been reached. The barrier of class makes it all but impossible for him to explain;—save by letters which he may well lack both the leisure and the qualifications to write — a position which his debtors have not the social conscience to grasp for themselves. And so the bills mount up, making the small trader’s life an increasingly .desperate struggle and keeping hundreds of honest and enterprising men in l a state of perpetual uncertainty which in nine ease out of ten they have done nothing to bring upon themselves.” —“The Times,” London. * * * * The Carpet Trade. London is now in the proud position of being the carpet centre of the world. We captured it from Constantinople, says a writer in an Englishpaper, and have so strengthened our hold that our position is now unchallenged. The centre of the trade is Cutler Street, E.l, not far from Liverpool Street. Here in the great warehouses of the Port of London Authority, which at one time were the barracks for the troops of the East India Company - Clive himself was quartered at Cutler Street—are eighty /great rooms set aside for carpets. They are here for the benefit ofbrokers of all nationalities, and the inn cidental enrichment of our own Customs. They come from Afghanistan, India, Persia, China, Baluchistan, Caucasia and Greece, and are set out in the various rooms for inspection. Deals are made, the carpets are washed by a secret and special process which improves their sheen, and, if for reexport to other countries, are packed into bales. From the moment of their arrival they are taped and sealed by the Customs, excepting the carpets from India, which enjoy a duty-free preference. To the untutored eye it is a bewildering business. There are, for example, 200 sorts of Persian carpets. I was shown one from Tabriz, a beautiful piece of work, with 600 to 700 stitches to the square inch. In glowing colours are shown hunters after deer, while dragons stalk tlieir way. Sparta carpets from the suburbs of Athens, embossed carpets from China, and Indian carpets of all grades are here, with the mats and carpets made by Afghans, Persians and the mountain craftsmen of Baluchistan. Fifty to sixty brokers and merchants are daily in attendance, including Armenians, Greeks, Turks, Persians and occasionally Indians, Chinamen and Afghans, though the trade, in its development as a London market, is now largely in the hands of Jews.