ALLEGED PROFITEERING

Wanganui Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 160794, 30 October 1920, Page 3

ALLEGED PROFITEERING

IN TWEEDS AND SUITINGS. (Per United Press Association.) WELLINGTON, October 29. Giving evidence in the alleged profiteering cases, A. C. Kitto, tailor, said ha regarded suitings bought from Bing, Harris, and Co. as good value. Thera were ten to fifteen firms in Wellington dealing in suitings in free competition. Joseph Lewis, another tailor, regarded the cloth sold him as worth the price, at which he had offered to buy the whole piece. John Allen, representative of the Mosgiel Woollen Manufacturing Company, Dunedin, gave evidence of the sale of piece No. 7766 to Bing, Harris, and Co. on March 4, 1920, at 13s 2d pet yard. The company’s output was sold beforehand. Thee was greater demand than before the war, for last year the prices of English tweeds were 100 pet cent, over the same lines of New Zealand tweeds. Before the war English tweed could be landed cheaper. No price had been fixed for forehand sale, but a rise had been anticipated. Witness mentioned rises from 6d to 14s 2d and from os lid to 9s as indicating the rise in replacement value in three months. Charles Baker Bowie, general warehouse manager of the Kaiapoi Woollen Company, said that a profit of 25 to 33 1-3 per cent, was put on colonial tweeds on turnover, or 33 1-3 to 50 per cent, on cost. This was the total amount put on before it readied the tailor. Charles Wm. Eushbrook, sales manager for the Wellington Woollen Company, which manufactures clothing as well as cloth, said that the company added 33 1-3 per cent, to the manufactured cost to cover warehouse charges and profits, but the mills made no profit.