SHORTAGE LIKELY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 24, 30 January 1939, Page 9

SHORTAGE LIKELY.

SAFETY MATCHES. IMPORT RESTRICTIONS. (From Our Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, Sunday. "Although I don't think there fc a shortage of safety matches in the retail shops at the present time, it is quite obvious that there will be a shortage very soon if the present arrangement* continue," <said a member of a city importing firm to-day.

Hta comment wm made when an Auckland report was referred to him in which the manager of an Auckland firm was stated to have commented caustically on the effects of the import regulations because of the inability of the one New Zealand factory to ship l:im five caeeg of aafety maichee a« Uμ factory wae at present out of stock and inundated with orders.

"Our application to import safety matches was at first turned down; there was a total prohibition," said the member of the firm. "We appealed and since then the position has been eased to the extent that we are now entitled to import for the $rat half of tide year up to 50 per cent of the quantity of Britit.li safety matches we imported doirinz the corresponding period last year. "One ground* of the appeal was that the one XeW Zealand factory, which i« in Wellington, making eafetv matches, could not poaeibly e u Pp i y mor e than one-quarter of the normal requirements of the country. In view of that fact, it wae absurd that there should be a total prohibition againet the iniiwta tien of these matehea. Even thousjli permweion baa now been given to import up to 50 per cent of the imports for the first six months of laet year, there will still be a shortage."