SCARCITY OF ALARM CLOCKS

Southland Times, Issue 24596, 19 November 1941, Page 6

SCARCITY OF ALARM CLOCKS

PROBLEM OF OBTAINING SUPPLIES

(P.A.) WELLINGTON, November 18. Owners of cheap alarm clocks of the type so common in practically every home will be well advised to treat them with care, as according to an importer there is an acute shortage, which will become even more acute. He said it is not a question of whether all the clocks needed could be imported, but whether they could be got at all, licence or no licence to import. It was more than likely that the great clock-making plants at present working part time on munitions would swing over entirely to war work.

In 1938 the imports of clocks, almost entirely of low-priced alarm timepieces, numbered 164,421, of which Germany supplied 88,349 and Japan 12,474. In 1939 the imports were only 94,120. The import restriction came in December 1939 and the effect became apparent in 1940, when the importations of clocks were only 36,190. For the first half of the present year the number was 17,147 which, including as it does electrict and other expensive clocks, means a small number of cheap clocks as compared with past years. As imports during 1942 are limited to 25 per cent, of the total value of all clocks imported in 1938, £50,256, only £12,564 will be available and of course the prices have risen, so decreasing the number of clocks money will buy. Outside this, however, is the fact that supplies now appear to be available only from Canada and the United States, both dollar countries.