IMPORT LICENSES

Waikato Times, Volume 124, Issue 20737, 22 February 1939, Page 10

IMPORT LICENSES

RESTRICTION OF BATTERIES DEAF PERSONS CONCERNED tßv Telegaaph.—Press Association) CHRISTCHURCH, Tuesday It is understood that licences for the importation of dry cell batteries for American devices used by people hard of hearing have been refused by the Customs Department. A Christchurch woman, in an interview, said that for many years she had used one of these devices and had found it most satisfactory. Since the application of the new' restrictions it appeared that licences to import batteries had been refused and a Christchurch agency had closed down at short notice, added the woman. She went in one day to order a battery and found the furniture being removed from the office. Since then she had scoured New Zealand for batteries, but found that the small available supply had been bought up by other deaf people. She was now near the end of the battery she had been using and had managed to obtain one further one. When it ran out she would he entirely cut off from her neighbours. Substitute Unsatisfactory New Zealand-made substitutes, she said, had proved unsatisfactory, and, unless the restriction was lifted, the future appeared depressing. She, had heard, however, that another sufferer had writtenlo the Minister of Customs, f the lion. W. Nash, explaining the posi- ; tion. and lie had personally sent a hat- ; lery of the type in question, so it was < possible the restriction would be lifted. ! Even so. there would be a considerable i interim before it would he possible to obtain further supplies from America. The woman said she understood a large number of deaf people, users of this device, had decided to protest to the Minister and already 50 letters were being forwarded from Christchurch.