CHRISTMAS QUEUES

New Zealand Herald, Volume 80, Issue 24775, 24 December 1943, Page 8

CHRISTMAS QUEUES

AUSTRALIAN SHOPPERS

ABSENCE OF LUXURIES (Special Australian Correspondent) SYDNEY, Dec. 23 With ao many of the season's normal commodities in short supply, Australia's 1913 Christmas may be remembered as the "queue" Christmas. Each morning thousands of hopeful city shoppers form ration lines to await store openings.

Australia is accepting with resigned cheerfulness a festive season of unparalleled austerity. On the depleted food front there are few sweets or dried fruits. Nuts, crystallised table fruits and tinned fruits are off. the market. Due to shortages of material, Christmas cakes and puddings are rare. There is no cream. Pork is unprocurable; ham and poultry are difficult to obtain.

Cordials are scarce, beer supplies unequal to the demand, and spirits are practically unobtainable. Tobacco and cigarettes are at their lowest ebb. Books top the Christmas presents popularity list. With shop toys fabulously expensive and incredibly shoddy, many parents have made at home their Christmas gift toys. Record Sales of Savings Certificates Sales of war savings certificates are a record. Retail stores report boom sales of hardware and household necessities, which are replacing normal Christmas gifts. Stores expect to be out of these lines for several months of the new year. The reduction of train transport to half the number which was running last Christmas will keep most Australians in their own homes. However, the reduced holiday resort accommodation is packed to capacity. In the cities no extra trams or buses are being provided for Christmas crowds. Australian troops who are fighting the Japanese in the front lines of New Guinea, however, will have some of the Christmas luxury foods which are being denied to civilians. Five transport planes will be required to transport the day's special rations, which will include turkey, ham, tinned fruit, cream, Christmas pudding and cake, chocolate and fruit juices.

Principally because of the postings to troops, the Australian post office reports record business —25 per cent above last year. Workers' Longest Holidays

Most Australian war workers will have their longest Christinas holiday break for four years. Munition workers, except those on high priority tasks, will be given a continuous-ten-day holiday for Christmas and the New Year. Coal miners will have practically the same break. Government authorities nave been greatly heartened by the rise in coal production during the past month. The most punishing blow to the season's festive spirit has been the receipt by hundreds of thousands of Australians in the past few days of their year's income tax assessments. Widespread plaints have been voiced that these assessments are even heavier than the record amounts anticipated. Taxation must be paid by the end of March. EGG FOR CHRISTMAS BRITISH PEOPLE EXCITED CANBERRA. Dec. 23 The British people are excited because one fresh egg will be allowed to everybody this Christmas, says the leader of the United Kingdom food mission to Australia and New Zealand, Mr. Bankes Amery. He adds that Britain's fifth wartime Christmas would be the most austere of the war. The whole nation is looking forward to a two-day holiday, states Mr. Amery. Family reunions will be difficult, because the trains are much reduced and no petrol is allowed for private motoring, even at Christmas. The ration of butchers' meat for Christmas week will remain at only Is 2d worth for each adult and 7d worth for each child. No large joints will be provided for families. About 500,000 turkeys have been made available, but thev will not go far among 47,000.000 people. Restaurants are prohibited from serving turkey, except on Christmas Day.

MEN FLOWN TO FRONT 15,000 IN ONE OPERATION BRISBANE, Dec. 2 Qantas Empire Airways air-trooper and air-freighter transports had carried more than 15,000 troops into the lino and nearly a. million pounds of equipment, supplies and ammunition in one memorable operation in New Guinea, the chairman of directors of Qantas Limited, Sir Fergus McMaster, said at the -.'ird annual meeting in Brisbane.

Return loadings from battle areas included sick and wounded, prisoners and captured war materials, said Sir Fergus. The company was also one of the organisations which assisted to supply the Allied Army during the Buna campaign. Mileage flown by Qantas Empire Airways last year had doubled, and the number of passengers quadrupled. Increase in the carriage of freight and air mails was considerable. The staff had increased eightfold, much of the increase being due to the repair and overhaul work undertaken by the company for the Allied Air Forces and Navies in the Australian war theatre. A further large expansion was taking place in the current year.