SUPPLIES OF SUITS

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 4725, 17 January 1946, Page 4

SUPPLIES OF SUITS

BUSINESSLIKE METHOD URGED “ 'Darjc and uncertain' would be a fair summing up of the outlook concerning men’s suits in the immediate future,” says the ‘N.Z. Draper* and Allied Retailer.’ "The New Zealand Retailers’ Federation has been gravely perturbed for some time, and has made representations to the Minister for Supply (Hon D. G. Sullivan) urging the introduction of a businesslike method of rationing and control to ensure that returned servicemen, particularly former prisoners of war, should enjoy a priority. It was felt, by the federation that a permit system, for a period of about six months, whereby, on production of demobilisation papers or a special chit, a returned man would have first call on whatever was available, would be the best means of overcoming the difficulty, “The Minister has not seen fit to adopt this suggestion,” continues the journal. “At the date of the last estimate of production of suits, the Minister anticipated that 70,000 three-piece suits would be made in New Zealand during the period July-December. It is argued by the Minister that 35,000 suits will thus be available to returning service personnel. In his latest letter he says ‘This quantity will now be increased and a survey is in hand to ascertain the additional numbers of suits that will be produced.’ “Based on the Federation's experience of the industry, the Minister’s estimate is a gross over-estimate. In the past the total year’s production has been only a little more than that figure. “The New Zealand Retailers’ Federation believes that, with men returning from all theatres of war. there will be such an outcry about the difficulties of procuring a suit that the Minister may be forced to introduce a rigid priority system.”