HEAVY SPENDING

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 89, Issue 301, 21 December 1945, Page 6

HEAVY SPENDING

AUSTRALIAN CHRISTMAS SAVINGS WITHDRAWN (Special Gorrwpundent—N.Z.P.A.) Sydney, Dec. 19. Christmas spending in Australia this jear has been very heavy. Bank officials estimate tnat New South Wales spending alone will exceed £2,000,000, and said more than half of this amount would come from bank accounts. The president of the Retail Traders’ Association said that shopping crowds were probably no greater than in recent years, hut shoppers were spending more freely. In most departments of the big retail stores demand has exceeded supply. There will be a severe shortage of merchandise after Christmas because stocks are being depleted and power-rationing has brought manufacturing to a standstill. People are spending freely on the small stocks of jewellery, china, and crystal available. This year there has been a marked swing away from "war" toys and a return to the pre-war type of toy. The shipping strike has caused a shortage of dolls' heads in Sydney, and powei restrictions will mean that fewer mechanical and other toys are available for Christmas stockings this year. The manager of a Sydney firm wmeh does a big trade in dolls said that the shipping strike had prevented the delivery of 24,000 plastic dolls’ heads from New Zealand. Australia had relied on New Zealand this year for metal non-mechanical toys because the restrictions on tov manufacture had been lifted earlier in New Zealand than in Australia. Some Australian factories which had ceased war production have been delayed in their reconversion to toy manufacture by the shortage of powei and raw materials.