HARDWARE GOODS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 January 1940, Page 4

HARDWARE GOODS

MANY LINES IN SHORT SUPPLY PARTICULARLY NAILS .4. IRON, POSITION IN MASTERTON. Masterton hardware retailers report an increasing shortage of many lines while some goods are not procurable at all. Although the effect, of war conditions will accentuate the position, it is stated that the present shortage is due to the imposition of import restrictions. Nails, for instance, have been in short supply for the past three months and are procurable only in small quantities. It is very difficult today to supply sufficient nails in some sizes for house construction. Eight to ten hundredweight of nails are required for an average house, varying, of course, according to the size of the building; Certain sizes of nails are not obtainable. Gauge wire is not in the country, though every effort is being made to secure supplies. As no information is available about shipping movements, no one knows when supplies are likely to arrive. Similarly, corrugated iron is in extremely short supply and is being sold only for roofing purposes and for local use.

Many other hardware lines are in short supply, including primus stoves, enamel ware, tools, garden hose, and egg beaters. In fact, practically all overseas goods are becoming increasingly difficult to secure, while the selection has been narrowed down in many cases. The public, on the otherhand, have been well catered for in the past and some people hold the opinion that no harm would be done if the variety of similar goods was reduced. Substitutes are available for some lines and no doubt more will come to hand later, though the demand for certain of these is bound to be keen. Buying by retailers underpresent conditions is a trying and difficult task. Importers are rationing their sales and a retailer is fortunate if he receives two dozen of a line of which he ordered a gross.