Servicemen played a big part

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32568, 30 March 1971, Page 15

Servicemen played a big part

Returned servicemen, and their wives, have played a great part in the building of the Four Square organisation in Christchurch, Canterbury, the Coast, Nelson and Marlboorugh. With the end of the Second World War, a new spirit permeated New Zealand and extended into the business world.

The return from the war of such a large number of men created new demands, and, so far as the grocery trade was concerned, their return was to inject a new spirit of hope into those who were engaged in at the time, after such a long period of difficul-

ties which had seemed never ending. For many grocers who had been in the trade all their lives, the return to the country of servicemen with gratuities in their pockets, with rehabilitation facilities for finance made available to them by the

grateful Government, the opportunity to “call it a day” was welcomed with open arms. This may seem something of a paradox, but let it be remembered that many of those in the trade at the end of World War II had served in World War L Many of them were getting on in years and the difficulties of rationing, supplies and shortages in World War II had made being a grocer hard work. Frustrated as they were, it is little wonder that many of them stood down, as the opportunities arose, to make way for a new generation of retailers. This situation

provided the solution to the problem of rehabilitation for many returned servicemen. Another trade which had suffered through the shortage of manpower during World War II was the building trade,, with the result that the number of houses built had declined to an alltime low. Servicemen, naturally enough, were anxious to marry and settle down, so that the demand for houses became acute. Many of the exservicemen did not wish to return to the occupation they had followed before going overseas, and many of them had

married on return. Because of this, two problems were created to find a house and to find work. Here then was the opportunity to solve both of them, and the young wives entered into the project with the same degree of enthusiasm as their men folk. In one stroke, they could achieve their objectives and the corner grocery store with residence attached became the object of unprecedented demand. It was so great that hundreds of them were built before the demand was satisfied.