“Nappies” Hard To Get Just Now

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 12, Issue 75, 30 July 1948, Page 5

“Nappies” Hard To Get Just Now

FEW ON MARKET • ARE POOR BLOTTERS If the baby napkin situation does not improve in the near future, the youngest hopefuls in this district are going to have an uncomfortable time of it. All the shops in the Whakatane area which retail baby squares say the position is pretty grim. Some have been getting a few in and others have had practically none for a long time, except for an occasional dozen or so of really inferior things which are mighty thin and very poor “blotters.” Getting to the bottom of the trouble it is found that there are a few coming in, but not nearly enough to meet the terrific demand set up through the increasing shortage. That shortage is blamed, by most of the retailers, on the stringent import controls. Others blame it on the shipping situation. One ratailer said he had some nappies in at present in which any self respecting baby would be ashamed to be | seen. out. He would have been ashamed, to sell them before the war at 4/11 a dozen but now had to sell at approximately 7 times the 1 pre-war price—3s/- a dozen. To make the situation worse, there are numbers of mothers and expectant mothers who require this essential commodity who will have to wait quite a while as the numbers of baby squares expected is small. One shop said they received a few “every week or so” but could not catch up on the demand.

One woman who was in dire need of napkins for her baby wrote to the Minister of Health asking about the situation. She received a very round about, reply. The Minister passed the query on to the Department of Industries and Commerce, who in turn passed it on to the Retailers Federation of New Zealand who again passed it back to their branch in the town in which she lived. She was then advised to see if she could buy winceyette to make up.