WAR CONDITIONS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 14667, 26 July 1918, Page 6

WAR CONDITIONS.

WELLINGTON GETS A TASTE. (Special to the Herald.) WELLINGTON, this day. The official instruction to shipping that Cook Strait must be traversed by daylight has caused consternation to Wellington business men, not because fchey fear any serious trouble to the boats under the altered conditions, but for the reason that their mail communications have been turned topsy-turvy by the change. The departure of the Southern ferry m the early afternoon gives time for the North Island mails to connect the same day with the South, but the old system gave Wellington traders a chance to reply by return mail to South Island letters. This is now almost impossible. Cross-strait communication to Nelson, Blenheim, and the West Coast is similarly upset. It lias given Wellington its first real taste of war-time inconveniences. Another trouble, which householders' are suffering, from m common with the business community, it, the clu-onic scarcity of coal. It is a day-to-day problem m Wellington, and the poorer people are no. worse off than those m influential positions. I heard this week of two Ministerial households being down to their last bucket-full of the precious fuel. One cause of the trouble is the regulation system which Avas actually designed to prevent it. Supplies are so limited, that the slightest hitch m the arrival of. coal, and consequent delay m delivery, makes the household reserve run out, for the regulations ensure that nobody can keep a good 3tock. Several coal boats liave been held up on the West Coast by bad weather, and the few hundred-weights m private coal bins cannot stand the delay. The miners are appealing to the public for sympathy m their dispute with the owners, but under present conditions, all they will get from the general public is a. demand for more coal, and a steady supply.