Normal Tram Service for Friday

Evening Star, Issue 26137, 26 June 1947, Page 6

Normal Tram Service for Friday

On Friday, trams will run to the time-table in force before the restrictions, except that the last trams will run at about 10.30 p.m. This decision was made for the convenience of shoppers by tho Transport Committee of the City Council when it met yesterday to consider the most effective means of using the extra power allocated to the transport department. SHOP WINDOW LIGHTING. Already some shopkeepers _ were exceeding the amount of electricity they were allowed to use for window lighting, tho installation engineer. Mr E. E. Young, told the ‘ Star ’ this morning. “ Only a simple mathematical calculation is required to determine the number of watts permitted for a window,” Mr Young said. To ascertain the square footage of the floor space in the window, it was only necessary to multiply the length by the width. One watt for evry square foot of space was allocated by the Priorities Committee, so that if the floor space was 50 square feet, the maximum lighting for the area would be one 50-watt bulb, or two 25-watt bulbs. Mr Young warned that if shopkeepers contir. ted to employ more lighting than they were allowed, their supply would be disconnected. RETAILERS’ BUSINESS DECLINES. “ Taken over the whole of a year Friday’s returns for the retailer amount to about half of the returns for the other four days of the week together,” the secretary of the Otago Retailers’ Association, Mr W. P. Wellington, informed the ‘ Star ’ this morning. He said that there had been a marked decline in the retailers’ trade since the restrictions had been imposed, and this had been particularly noticeable on Friday, the late shopping day. Lack of transport ha' deterred shoppers first of all. Apart from that, there was no doubt that people liked to look at and discuss the goods before making a purchase, and, this had not been possible when shop window lighting was prohibited. It was expected that there would be an improvement in business to-morrow night. Regarding shop window lighting, Mr Wellington said that some shopkeepers were still confused about how much light they were permitted, to have, but he expressed confidence that in a day or two the difficulties would be overcome. LATE SHOPPING. Retailers’ shops will remain open until 9 p.m. on Friday night as a result of the decision of the Priorities Committee yesterday. Last Friday shops were closed at 8 p.m. DISCONNECTION OF WATER HEATERS. Inquiries made by tbe ‘ Star ’ this morning as to how long those persons who had had the. supply of electricity for water heating cut off through disobeying the restrictions could he expected to be penalised, revealed that for the first offence power would be disconnected for one week.. Any recurrence of the offence would result in the power being cut off for the whole period during which tho electricity restrictions remain in force. POWER SAVING THIS WEEK. For the 24 hours up to midnight on Wednesday the power saving in Dunedin amounted to 26.61 per cent., a decline from the figure of 28.1 per cent, for the previous day. But the total reduction over the three days of the week until then was 27.42 per cent. BROADCASTING HOURS. The present hours of broadcasting have been both strongly criticised and warmly approved in Dunedin since the beginning of the electricity restrictions. At the public meeting of consumers on Monday last, representatives of the manufacturers urged the curtailment of broadcasting hours, while other speakers just as forcibly urged their retention, one of them stressing the importance of listening to Parliamentary broadcasts. When the critical power situation in ,the North Island made necessary the restriction of broadcasting over the whole of New Zealand, there was a large volume of thought in the south against the South Island being included in the ban. Apparently there has been a suggestion now that the North Majid, should receive some relaxation, because the power situation has improved there, for the Director of Broadcasting, Professor James Shelley, found it necessary to say yesterday that so far as broadcasting was concerned, the North and South Islands went together, and there was no suggestion of increasing the hours, either on his part, or that of the Government.