FIREWOOD SHORTAGE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 61, Issue 253, 7 August 1941, Page 4

FIREWOOD SHORTAGE.

SUPPLIES BEING RATIONED. DIFFICULTIES OF MERCHANTS. A situation with regard to firewood supplies that has been progressively worse over the last few winters has reached an acute stage in Ashburton, and so short is the supply of wood, especially of pine, which is the standard firing commodity apart from coal, that merchants have been compelled to ration orders put in by their customers. It was explained to a “Guardian” reporter this morning that the cutting of firewood is very heavy work and those young men who were mainly interested in the supply a few years ago are either away with the forces or have taken permanent jobs, with more money and easier work, with the public works.

There was a time, it was stated, when two or three young men would go out and put a contract price on a plantation, and the wood soon was available for the merchants, but many of these men have gone to the war while others have taken up regular work with the irrigation scheme. Another factor is that the trees to be used for firewood are more distant from Ashburton as the years go on and that has increased the price. One merchant said he had been “living from hand to mouth” with his wood supplies and another said .that the demand this winter had been heavy, if not heavier, than in other years. A third man said that had there been a severe winter in.Ashburton there would have, been a-shortage of coal, as. well as of wood, ,but the weather had been fairly, regular and the result was that there were ample supplies of coal on hand, in fact better than was the case in Christchurch. There was plenty of green wood being cut at present, a merchant said, but he added: “You will have to wait till next winter if you want your woodshed filled.”