COAL IN DEMAND

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31653, 13 April 1968, Page 12

COAL IN DEMAND

Thousands Of Orders

Several of the biggest coal merchants in Christchurch said the demand for household coal supplies on Thursday was the biggest they could ever remember in April. The manager of the State Coal Depot said that the number of orders taken for coal “would run into thousands.” Many of the customers, he said, wanted instant delivery but were not able to get it. Some coal orders would go out on Tuesday, but other orders would not be delivered till Wednesday, Thursday or -Friday, depending on the particular area.

“It’s been a phenomenal demand today,” he said. “People have been coming in all day with their cars picking up bags of coal for the Easter holidays." A member of the staff of F. Drury and Son, Ltd. of Papanui, said that the demand for coal on Thursday was 40 times that of last Monday. A continuous stream of cars bad been calling at the firm’s coal yard all day to pick up bags of coal and firewood. “Can’t Keep Up” “Our workmen can’t keep up with bagging the coal,” he said.

A spokesman for the heating oil division of Shell Oil New Zealand Ltd, said that the demand for fuel oil had been exceptionally heavy. “Our trucks have been flat out all day delivering oil. It has been the heaviest April day we can recall for deliveries.”

The secretary of the Canterbury Carpenters’ Union (Mr R. J. Pitcairn) said that the repairing of blown down fences and other property in Christchurch would provide some respite to city carpenters faced with a shortage of work through the economic squeeze. “But I don’t think that it will induce carpenters who have already left the trade to return to it,” he said. “The future in the building industry is too uncertain for them to return to the Industry just to do repair work for a relatively short period.”