SLEEPING WELL?

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 43, 19 August 1943, Page 5

SLEEPING WELL?

PYJAMA SHORTAGE

SUBSTITUTES & SEARCHING

A suit of pyjamas is worth a lot these days. An illustration of the shortage of this essential —or is it?— garment is afforded by the response to an intimation in Wanganui that there would he a ballot for 12 pyjama suits which had been received by the patriotic committee there. It had been stated that the suits would be for returned servicemen, and it was not long before some 60 applications to participate in the ballot were received.

The position in regard to sleeping garments of the particular type is still regarded as acute, and, while lack of material is a cause, there is also the problem of man-power.. Recent statements by the New Zealand Manufacturers' Federation and the Minister of Supply indicate the possibility of an early improvement in the position of supplies for civilian needs. Some recent supplies, quite limited, caused eager customers to gasp not only at the fact that pyjamas were procurable, but also at the high price at which they .were retailed—£3 13s 3d a pair. Nevertheless, one -business establishment sold its twelve* pairs within ten minutes. That high, price, like others, as has been pointed out by the New Zealand Manufacturers' Federation, is brought about by the special quality and the price of the imported material. The cost of the material to the maker in the case of those high-price pyjamas is stated to be 12s 6d a yard, and when it is realised that some.five and a half yards are' needed in the making the manufacturing cost represents a small part of the total, and that also applies to the retailer. USE OF SUBSTITUTES. It is reported that many a substitute for the usual material is being, adopted for the making (privately), as well as for the patching, of pyjamas. Unbleached calico —perhaps not so enticing an outfit until the dressing is washed out —has been used by some women in making pyjamas, and even mattress ticking has been found to produce attractive as w rell as comfortable pyjamas. Both varieties would, to the male, be more acceptable than the offer of a nightshirt or than adopting the expedient of sleeping in "shirttails." There are other ways and means of meeting the problem of sleeping in comfort, with its attendant burden of higher costs, but with them all the housewife never lets up in eagerly searching the shops, not in the least bit discouraged by surprised expressions at her inquiry—for pyjamas. It is recognised -by the manufacturers' controlling body that pyjamas come within the category of essential civilian requirements, and it will be of some consolation to those in need to know that the New Zealand Manufacturers' Federation and its affiliated organisations are doing their utmost;to relieve the position, and that the Minister of Supply has announced that a change-over is taking place bto catch up on civilian-requirements.

DUTCH HOUSING-NEEDS An estimate that 32,000 houses will have to be built in Holland, every year for ten years after the war is made in "De Tijd." In 1940, it says, there-were 2,200,000 houses for a • population d£> 8,900,000, making an average of four per house. «The new houses would be needed to make good 'the standstill period during the war and to replace: the 30,000 houses which, it is estimated,.; have been > destroyed. xx'XXXZX/;

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