COAL SUPPLIES

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 74, 24 September 1943, Page 6

COAL SUPPLIES

STOCKS STILL SHORT] ..

"POSITION BAD AS EVER"

"At the present time retailers in Wellington and the Hutt Valley areas have no coal—in fact, it is questionable at the moment whether in all the coal yards in the area there are three tons of household coal available," said the secretary of the Wellington Coal Merchants' Association, Mr. W. J. Mountjoy, today, when referring to a statement by a distributor earlier this week that coal deliveries were better than they were a week or a fortnight previously. "Many complaints are being received from the Hutt Valley and other districts about the difficulty of obtaining fuel for cooking and household requirements," said Mr. Mountjoy. "The difficulty is due to the fact that at the present time there are several ships held up at ports awaiting suitable weather conditions to bring coal to Wellington, and while it has been expected for some .days now that coal would be available, it-does not appear that the position will be relieved until after the present weekend, when it is expected that some coal at least will be made available to retailers. "The coal situation at the present time is as bad as, if not worse than, it has been for a long time/and it is fortunate that the weather has been warmer than it was a few weeks ago, otherwise the general public would have suffered much more inconvenience and discomfort. How residents are going to cook and provide hot water for baths, etc., particularly those who are dependent on coal ranges for such amenities, is hard to imagine."