RUSH TO BUY TEA

Southland Times, Issue 24773, 18 June 1942, Page 4

RUSH TO BUY TEA

CONFUSED SITUATION IN AUCKLAND

(P.A.) AUCKLAND, June 17. With the date generally understood to be 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 today. Since the introduction of rationing three . weeks ago, there had been no definite and universal announcement of when 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. Retailers, who had experienced an unprecedented demand for tea this week and were anticipating worse tomorrow and on Friday, were pressing merchants for supplies. ■ Merchants, whose warehouses were bare of stock, were pressing packers and the packers had no hesitation in asserting that it was impossible to issue supplies at the rate demanded. The local rationing office tonight 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 Rationing Controller by telephone in Dunedin, had his verbal assurance that the period would be extended by 10 days to Tuesday, June 30. The packers, who had earlier sent a memorandum to Wellington demanding more time, had no advice at ail, 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 he had been inundated with telephone calls from grocers who were unable to supply customers and were panic-stricken at the thought of what they would have to put up with tomorrow and on Friday. "If this is Government control. Heaven preserve us from it,” said Mr Barker in 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. It was a case of the helpless family grocers having to bear the brunt of the consequences of another piece of official muddling.