SALE OF GUMBOOTS

Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24633, 1 August 1945, Page 8

SALE OF GUMBOOTS

Sir,—Could you inform me if it is necessary to obtain permits for gumboots, and if so, what is the reason for shops ail over Canterbury selling them without, both before and since the snow fell? Also, what is to be done regarding the hundreds of pairs sold to all and sundry during the snow period without permits? Surely it would be a farce to grant permits for these now. Do the authorities consider the shopkeepers have committed a breach, for which they should be held to account, in selling to any person who was in dire need, and could not wait for a permit to be granted during the snow period? I would appreciate a full explanation.- -Yours, etc., SNOW. July 27, 1945. [The district officer of the Department of Industries and Commerce says: "(1) the gumboot control scheme provides that no retailer may sell gumboots without first having obtained the permission of an approving officer. (2) This office is not aware that shops all over Canterbury are selling gumboots without permits. If your correspondent has any definite information on this point, we should be glad to have it, so that appropriate action may be taken. (3) It has happened in odd, urgent cases that approval has been given by telephone, the actual permit having been signed subsequently."!