in Fiji

Building Material Rationed in Fiji

Prom Our Own Correspondent

Suva, Nov. 27.

IN mid-November, Fiji was startled by a Commodities Control order, forbid ding the sale of building materials.

The order was absolute and unconditional, and in its first shape prevented the ac quisition of so much as half a pound of nails or a plank of timber. It has since been slightly modified.

The motive was to preserve stocks for defence requirements. In some directions, supplies of building materials from over seas have been very hard to secure, ana there was bound to be a shortage; but a little foresight could have provided ample supplies of materials for both military and civilian needs. However, neither the governmental nor the military mind is given to exercising overmuch foresight in such minor directions.

There is a serious housing shortage m Suva—hotels and boarding-houses are crammed to capacity, and until the “stop supplies” order came out, there was a good deal of civilian building in progress, people apparently feeling that despite the greatly increased costs of house construc tion, such costs will be worse before they are better. Those people, left with half built houses on their hands, and faced with the approaching wet-cum-hurricane season, are in an unfortunate position.