GUMBOOT PROBLEM

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 52, Issue 3260, 7 May 1943, Page 5

GUMBOOT PROBLEM

LAST N.Z. SHIPMENT

14,00.0 PAIR IN MAY 1942

8000 ALLOCATED TO FARMERS

The following information regarding the short supply of gumboots has been forwarded to the Gazette by Mr J. Thorn, M.P. for Thames. The statement reads as under: — “The last shipment of gumboots reached New Zealand in May, 1'942. It consisted of 14,000 pairs. The responsibility of distributing these lay with the Ministry of Supply and it was decided to allocate them among the following groups: Armed Forces, farmers, seamen, fishermen and miners. A very small number was retained by the department for issue to workers who worked in water, oil and. sewerage. Farmers’ Allocation “To ensure that the distribution would be fair the Ministry called a conference of the above interests and they agreed with the proposals on which the Ministry acted. Of the 14,000 pairs, 8000 were allotted to the farmers and the distribution of these was made by the Department bf Agriculture through the ordinary retail channels through which farmers ordinarily bought their supplies, the understanding being that the gumboots were only to be sold to dairy farmers. As soon as the Ministry’s proposals were accepted by the interests concerned it dropped out of the distribution.

‘ “No gumboots have reached New Zealand since this shipment came to hand and although everything possible has been done to obtain further supplies this has been unsuccessful, the difficulties, for obvious reasons, having been insuperable.”