GAS COOKERS COLD

Auckland Star, Volume LI, Issue 235, 1 October 1920, Page 5

GAS COOKERS COLD

AFTER HALF A CENTURY. • WORRY, TOIL, AND TROUBLE. DARK NIGHTS, COLD FOOD. It is a matter of some irony that the only tram service now running is that at Takapuna, over wh'sh a Royal Commission of inquiry has just concluded its sittings, and the only local gas service which continues to supply its consumers is that at Northcofe and Birkenhead, which have been two of the primary movers in a conference to get electricity for those districts. Takapuna, true, has lost its gas service, but Northcote and Birkenhead have lost none of their public utilities so far through the coal famine. This is the first complete stoppage of gas since the Auckland Gas Company started operations on April 15, 18G5, which is a matter of more than 55 years ago. Tn fact, through the whole of the long history of this company, there was not even a curtailment of supply until a few months ago, some time after the present precarious coal situation first began to develop. Auckland has no gas at all to-day, and all the suburbs as far as Papatoetoe, Onehunga and New Lynn on the south side, and Devonport and Takapuna on the north of the harbour, are without this essential supply. Northcote and Birkenhead are the only exceptions. Even the most pessimistic prophecies are falling short of the actual exter.t of the hardship involved and the number of people' who are • compelled to undergo direct inconvenience by the suspension of thi.s important server. Firewood as a commercial supply is exceedingly difficult to obtain, and those who use this and coal as fuel for their ranges and cooking apparatus often have to collect whatever they can on the beaches or irafp waste land. jJevonport is no exception to this condition, and many a man counted himself fortunate this morning in being able to get a slice of a great tree blown down at St. Paul's Presbytery by a recent gale. This tree has been lying for some time, and when business men, going to the boat this. morning saw a workman engaged cutting up the wood a queue was soon formed, each man trying to make arrangements to purchase a piece of the great trunk. THOUSANDS SUFFER HARDSHIP. Probably 20,000 gas cookers are cold, and almost five time 3 this number of raeu, women, and children have to have their food heated by other .means. Many of these, of course, have the oldfashioned range available, but on the other hand many have not, and it means a very considerable extension of the working day for hundreds of busy toilers who have to get u_ in the morning and light a makeshift fire to cook the morning feast piecemeal before they set out on the unusual tramp into town to their work. At night things are a little better, for mother has more time to get the evening meal ready _y the time dad gets home an /hour late, with boots muddy and body tired from the excess of unaccustomed exercise. Unfortunately this accumulation of inconvenient misfortunes is made all the worse by the unsettled weather, for the motor services, whatever their many merits, cannot possibly accommodate all the people who are unable to make use of the railways, and who yet must get home. The prospects of getting lamps and fuel for them loom up in the public eye to the exclusion of many things else, and the hardware retailers are kept very busy answering inquiries and quoting prices for lamps and cookers of every possible make and class. Nearing the end mi its stocks, one such firm anticipated this morning"'? demand by setting forth upon its counters eleven lamps of various sizes, all that were left of a moderately large supply. Here the anxious inquirers were shown these things, with the remark, "They are all we have." while in the back of the shop salesmen and even office boys were busy tinkering with dozens of oil-burners which had 'been hastily resurrected from the junk-heap and brought into town for repair. The Gas Company is not yet in any position to anticipate, the day when the supply will be resumed, as there is no coal yet in prospect. Fortunately the drain on tliie kerosene, benzine, and candle supply has not yet absorbed all supplies, and there is yet no evidence of any serious or extensive shortage.