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Taranaki Daily News, 20 September 1919, Page 4

Dunedin ironmasters are now relieved from the long-snsiained difficulty caused by the shortage of raw inateria'l during the war (gays the Dunedin Star). Supplies of iron have arrived from India, and more is afloat from the same place; whilst two shipments of "pig" have come from America, and consignments of "sheet" have been landed from Canjada. The trouble now is about coke, | consequent on the shipping dislocation. The foundries cannot possibly get on ; without coke. There is no substitute for it. Speaking on the subject to a reporter, an employer said: "We are just borrowing from one another as we can get it, a bag or two at a time. For a month or more we have been expecting every week to be our last. Some days we are almost out; then we hear of somebody who has picked vp a few bags from some steamer that has just come in, and we all rush to beg the loan of a little to keep us going, aid pay back when we have a corresponding stroke of luck. In this way the foundries have managed to struggle along, and so far our firm has not had to reduce hands, but it is a precarious experience for the business, and we shall be very ({lad when things come back to normal.'