Many Women Wait In Queues at N.P. For Wool and Hose

Taranaki Daily News, 22 August 1942, Page 2

Many Women Wait In Queues at N.P. For Wool and Hose

Shop assistants have busy; day. When the first large quantities of both English and New Zealand wool were offered for sale at New Plymouth yesterday after a period of several months, hundreds of women, waited patiently for hours in queues at two shops to buy a limited number of skeins. i At one shop, which had previously an nounced the date the wool would arrivej^B a queue extended at 2 p.m. from counter at the rear of the building into the street. Five assistants wor^^^^H unceasingly until 5 o'clock, when queue became smaller, until at 6 o'c^^^H one assistant was able to cope witl^^^^H orders during the tea hour. Coloured wools were in greatesv mand, there having been no large plies for more than six months. evening no colours remained on shelves but air force and khaki wo^lM were still being purchased by many Oe- ^ tomers. The second shop to open up wool had its share of waiting throngs. Its doors were opened at mtervals to admit about a dozen customers at a time. The attendants at this shop had a two days* rush because stocks of wool were offered both yesterday and on Thursday. Fully-fashioned silk stockings for sale j provided another reason for many New Plymouth women leavi.ng their homes or places of business at a moment's- notice yesterday. Because only one pair of fully-fashioned hose can be bought in six months, women who heard that stocks were available decided to buy while they could. Some disappointment was felt by those who had gone to town without carrying their coupon books. One woman returned to her home a considerable distance out of town only to find all the stockings had been sold when she rei turned, complete with ration book. One woman occupied a long wait in a wool queue by knitting half a sock.