WIRE SHORTAGE

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21192, 15 August 1940, Page 8

WIRE SHORTAGE

RATIONING INDICATED DAIRY COMMITTEEMEN MEET NEW ZEALAND COMPANY Remarking on the fact of a smaller attendance than usual, Mr W. Marshall. chairman of directors of the New Zealand Co-operative Dairy Company, Limited, when presiding at the annual conference of the company’s committeemen in Hamilton today, said it was apparent that people generally by tacit consent were prepared to shelve small issues in favour of going ahead with the big task that was facing them. This attitude, he said, was also indicated by the smallness of the agenda paper. Supplies of Wire The shortage of fencing wire was indicated in a Hunui remit, which urged that minimum requirements of fencing wire were essential to farmers if any increased production were to be achieved by cropping. The remit asked the company to endeavour to obtain through the Government these minimum requirements for rationing to district committees.

In moving the remit, Mr A. Sutton said that 100 tons of wire would be arriving this week and would be apportioned among merchants. So urgent was the need to increase production, however, that the 100 tons would rapidly disappear. Stricter control of supplies was needed. “There is likely to be a very acute shortage of wire, and anything that can be done to assist in the rationing of supplies as they arrive will be appreciated by everyone,” said Mr W. E. Hale, chairman of the New Zealand Dairy Board. “I understand that firms receiving wire will be expected to ration it on a fair and equitable basis.” Iron and Piping Reasonable supplies of piping were available, said Mr Marshall in reply to a speaker who asked that iron and piping should also be referred to in the remit. Substitutes were available for

OUUbli luic.'i wcic ovauauic iui iron, said Mr Sutton, and the position could not be classed as so acute. The remit was carried. A Te Poi remit, moved by Mr F. G. Southon, urged that the Government be asked to give an assurance that regulations governing the change from butter supply to cheese bo enforced only for the duration of the war and not more than 12 months afterward. The remit was carried after little discussion.