Towanps the end of 1887 the Council of the Derby Chamber of Commerce appointed a Committee to enquire into the silk trade of the district. It was also commissioned to obtain information as to the position of the trade in competing countries and to consider the prospects of the industry generally, This Committee recently issued a report in which it gives some information as to the silk trade on the Continent, and, among other things, on the system of working there. An extract from the published by the Board of Trade, and from it we take some extracts, The Committee made enquiries for the purpose of obtaining trustworthy information on "1st, As to the extent or importance of silk industries on the Continent of Europe; "ud, In what respects and to what extent foreigners are in a better condition than Englishmen to produce silk goods; and.
"3rd. To see whether the foreign producer has to depend on other trades, for instance, dyers and finishers, before his goods are marketable."
Having obtained information on these points the Committee considered the question: Why silk goods now produced on the Continent cannot be produced in Great Britain on equally favourable conditions? They concluded that Chinese, Japanese and Indian raw silks are imported into the United Kingdom on as favourable conditions as into the Continent; a indisputable position which it was scarcely worth the while of the Committee to enquire about and formulate. The Committee also found that the cost of installation and working of steam power factories in Britain is not greater than on the Continent, and that machinery can be as cheaply bought and used in England as by. fore competitors. "The real difficulty," the report says, "would, therefore, appear to be confined to the question of technical education, rates of wages, number of working hours and the facilities for dyeing, finishing and transport." As regards technical education it was ascertained that only mana gers, foremen, overlookers, and persons seeking these positions attend technical schools; ordinary workmen in the silk trade do not receive a technical education, they are merely apprenticed to the trade and have no other practical instruction or training. There are, however, technical weaving schools in some parts of the Continent, but it is thought by some that there is not. sufficient inducement or conveniences for apprenticing young people to silk weaving in England, indeed the reports from Macclesfield and Coventry state that apweaving. in consequence of this, there prenticeship no longer prevails in all are only a limited number of elderly weavers having a practical acquaintance with the trade, and in many cases they are too infirm to work. he decayed condition of the silk manufacturing trade in England is, we fear, described in these few words. The Committee considered that every encouragement and facility should be given to young people willing to receive a practical knowledge of the working and weaving of silk. But young people do not select unprofitable and apparently dying industries for their occupation in life,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.