BABY WOOL SHORTAGE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 March 1943, Page 6

BABY WOOL SHORTAGE

DUE TO SHIPPING DIFFICULTIES. MINISTER’S REPLY TO QUESTION. (By Telegranh—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. The shortage of baby wool and cot blankets was referred to by Mrs Grigg (Opposition, Mid-Canterbury) in a notice of question to the Minister of Supply, Mr Sullivan, in the House of Representatives yesterday. She asked that steps be taken to rectify the position. In a note to her question Mrs Grigg said that a recent survey by the Plunket Society disclosed that materials for baby clothes were almost’unobtainable throughout New Zealand. Before the House adjourned the Minister was given leave to reply to the question. He said that New Zealand had to" rely on importations for the bulk of its baby wool, and that it had been possible to secure a reasonable quota from the United Kingdom. Due to shipping difficulties, however, supplies had not come forward as expected. A cable message was being dispatched to the High Commissioner in London asking him to do everything possible to have the full quota shipped with the minimum possible delay. His recent announcement concerning considerably increased production of civilian blankets this year related to cot blankets as well. Actually cot blankets were now coming on to the market and should be available in increasing quantities very shortly.