RATIONING OPPOSED

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22200, 10 December 1946, Page 4

RATIONING OPPOSED

CLOTHING RETAILERS ‘•NO LONGER NECESSARY’* (9 a.m.) SYDNEY Dec. 10. A claim by the president of the Retail Traders’ Association, Mr. K. F. Coles, that there is no need for clothes rationing is strongly supported by retailers. A reduction from 112 to 56 coupons for the year, they agree, will lead to extensive black-marketing. They add that increased production is the surest method of reducing prices to the public, but manufacturers cannot be expected to step up production with the continuation of severe rationing. Mr. Coles said any continuation of rationing, particularly on a less liberal scale than formerly, gave no incentive for increased production, and tended only to peg production to present levels. Manufacturers naturally hesitated to make garments when the public had no coupons with which to purchase them. Retail traders considered that people should have goods made available to them as quickly as they were produced. Most people had already exhausted their 1946 coupons and would hesitate about making normal replacements even if more stocks became available. The managing director of one large retail firm said he was firmly convinced that there was no longer any need for a continuation of clothes rationing in any form. Admittedly, there were still shortages in certain lines, but many retailers were finding that their stocks were getting too high and had stopped buying. The continuation of rationing could result only in penalising honest traders who would not sell clothing without coupons, and benefiting unscrupulous men who flaunted the regulations to increase their business.