IMPORT RESTRICTIONS DEAL BLOW TO DEAF

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 127, 22 February 1939, Page 8

IMPORT RESTRICTIONS DEAL BLOW TO DEAF

Deprived Of Artificial Aid To Hearing LICENCES FOR DRY-CELL BATTERIES REFUSED Many deaf people are threatened with being cut off from intercourse with their fellows through the recently-im-posed import restrictions. Throughout New Zealand, people hard of hearing have learnt to rely upon an American electrical device. It is understood that licences for the importation of dry-cell batteries for this device have been refused by the Customs Department, and that as a result the deaf have been deprived of this aid to hearing. A Christchurch woman, in an interview, said that for many years she had used one of these devices and had found it most satisfactory. Without it she was stone deaf. Since the application of the new restrictions, it appeared that licences to import batteries had been refused and the Christchurch agency had closed down at short notice. She went in one day to order a battery and found the furniture being removed from the office. Since then she had scoured New Zealand for batteries, but found the small available supply had already been bought up by other deaf people. She was now near the end of the battery she had been using and had only managed to obtain one other one. When that ran out she would be entirely cut off from her neighbours—unable to converse with them, play bridge, or participate in any of the normal social activities of her everyday life. New Zealand-made substitutes, she said, had proved unsatisfactory. Unless the restriction was lifted the future appeared depressing. She had beard, however, that another sufferer had written to the Minister of Customs explaining the position, and he had personally sent a battery of the type needed, so it was possible that the restriction would be lifted. Even so, there would be a considerable interim before it would be possible to obtain further supplies from America. She said that she understood a large number of deaf people, users of this device, had decided to protest to the Minister and already 50 letters were being forwarded from Christchurch. The amount of money likely to go out of New Zealand in the purchase of these devices wa s so comparatively trivial that it could have no possible bearing on the destinies of the Dominion. There could be no reason to refuse so reasonable a request, when it meant the difference between utter solitude and the company and conversation of their friends to so many deaf New Zealanders.