QUIET NEW YEAR’S EVE: BUSINESS ‘HIT’ BY STRIKE

Greymouth Evening Star, 29 December 1950, Page 2

QUIET NEW YEAR’S EVE: BUSINESS ‘HIT’ BY STRIKE

• Greymouth is today experiencing its quietest commercial New Year’s eve for years. There were fewer people .in the streets of the town this, morning and early this afternoon than on an ordinary Friday. The absence of country visitors because of the strike that has stopped rail and some bus services, was responsible for the quieter atmosphere in the town, and shopkeepers report that the slump in business noted throughout the whole of this week, continued today.

The strike so far has had no obvious affect on the range of goods for sale in most shops. Stocks in most shops were built up before Christmas when city warehouses closed for the holidays. There is a lack of small goods, however, the businessmen whose stocks were popular during Christmas buying, are becoming worried about the future While petrol supplies are reported to be assured for motorists, the “workingman’s vehicle,” the cycle, is in a less bright position, and a retailei’ said this morning that supplies of tyres and tubes were embarrassingly low. Butcher shops today were wellstocked, but the abattoirs.at Greymouth did no . extra business this week, it is reported. It is believed that some butchers “scouted” the district this week in an effort to obtain animals for killing locally next week, but again transport problems have occurred, and if the strikers continue to refuse to allow meat supplies to be transported by road from Christchurch —an arrangement that commenced yesterday—a severe shortage menced yesterday—and if they are not defied a severe shortage may occur next week.