ALL WANT MATCHES

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 6, Issue 57, 19 March 1943, Page 2

ALL WANT MATCHES

TOBACCONISTS' PROBLEMS WOMEN GREATEST OFFENDERS "Match-eons jious"' customers are providing tobacconists to-day with one of their greatest problems. Nearly every customer asks for matches. On several occasions matches have been sold to women, who put them in their handbags, where they already had half a dozen or so other boxes. A fairly general opinion was that women were the greatest offenders. One Whakatane tobacconist sakl that customers always asked, for matches, but. if a box of matches were, sold to every purchaser of cigarettes, the month's supply wou?d be sold out in a day. Instead 'of unlimited supplies, each retailer received only between two or three gross of boxes each month. The country could not supply enough to satisfy the demand. Imported Stocks Another tobacconist said that be- \ fore the import restrictions, more matches were imported than were ever made in New Zealand, which produced only 30 per cent of the

normal consumption. About 95 per ccnt of the wooden mutches w©i'o imported, he said. The 1 shortage had «to come even without the war, when the import restrictions came in. Even if more, were produced here, the match problem would still exist, as local manufacturers, would, find it hard to catch up on, the 70 per cent previously imported. Also,, he explained, most of the materials for wax and wobden matches had to. be imported, including cotton, chemicals and wood. It took 2ft 3in of cotton for every wax match, and this country did not produce cotton, nor any suitable wood for match production, he said. We hear tales of all kinds about the difficulties of getting matches. 'What will I light my stove with?' is the usual plea put forward by women customers, who try to buy matches from tobacconists, said one man. "We are not concerned with boiling the kettle or lighting the lire. That is the grocer's business in regard to matches, and we can only supply our own customers who buy cigarettes and tobacecj."'