RUSH FOR TEA

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24945, 18 June 1942, Page 2

RUSH FOR TEA

A RATIONING MUDDLE DOUBT ABOUT CLOSING DATE (P.A.) AUCKLAND, June 17. With the date generally understood to be the closing day for the first period of tea rationing only two working days off, the tea trade of Auckland was in the throes of a crisis to-day. Since the introduction of rationing three weeks ago there had been no definite and universal announcement in regard to the date the first period would end, and the impression firmly held by most housewives and grocers was that coupons 1 to 4 were redeemable only till midnight on June 21. The retailers, who had experienced an unprecedented demand for tea this week and were anticipating a worse one to-morrow and on Friday, were pressing the merchants for supplies. The merchants, whose warehouses were bare of stock, were pressing the packers, and the packers had no hesitation in asserting that it was impossible to issue supplies at the rate demanded.

The local rationing office to-night was standing firm on its most recent advice from Wellington, that the coupon period would close this week-end. The Master Grocers' Association, which had been successful in locating the controller by telephone in Dunedin, had his verbal assurance that the period would be extended by 10 days to Tuesday," June 30. while the packers, who had earlier sent a memorandum to Wellington demanding more time, had no advice at all. but were confident that their representations would be heeded. The packers were unanimous that the grocers could expect no relief in the face of the growing rush of housewives to cash their coupons. The secretary of the Master Grocers' Association. Mr R. M. Barker, said tonight that he had been inundated with telephone calls from grocers who were unable to supply their customers, and were panic-stricken at the thought of what they would have to put up with to-morrow and on Friday. - "If this is Government control, heaven preserve us from it." said Mr Barker, commenting on the conflicting advices that were current. It seemed .to him that there was no cohesion between the Rationing Controller, who formulated the instructions, and the Post and Telegraph Department, which issued the instructions to local rationing offices. He had had a personal assurance some days ago from the controller that the currency of the first four coupons would be extended to June 30. and he had been waiting for this advice to be officially communicated to the rationing offices. Advice had not come, and now it was too late to do anything effective to stave off the onslaught of housewives who believed that their coupons would be useless after Saturday. It was a case of helpless family grocers having to bear the brunt of the consequences of another piece of official muddling.