In the Herald: June 21, 1949

Source
By Lyn Maccallum

Rush for cooking gear

Thousands of housewives, shopgirls and businessmen besieged city and suburban hardware shops yesterday for emergency cooking, lighting and heating gear. Queues in the city began to form before the shops opened at 9am. Managers of the city hardware stores said they would be able to cope with the kerosene demand this week, but were out of stoves and lamps and might not get more. Mr W. G. Nock, Managing Director of Nock and Kirbys, said the rush was greater than in the 1945 coal strike.

Heavy cost of relief for jobless

Unemployment benefits amounting to more than £400,000 will be paid each week in New South Wales if the ranks of the unemployed grow to the expected quarter of a million. One in every four without jobs in New South Wales is a sharp contrast with the .8 per cent unemployment that has existed for some time. The Unemployment, Sickness, and Special Benefits Bill provides for payment of benefits without limit of duration in the case of unemployment, it was reported in the Herald.

Extension appeal

A special appeal on behalf of a development fund for the Royal North Shore Hospital was opened yesterday. The Lord Mayor Alderman F. C. O’Dea, MLC, commending the appeal, said that citizens by contributing would build a monument by which their interest in the city and in welfare would always be remembered. “The time has come when the Royal North Shore Hospital must extend greatly its accommodation and facilities to meet the basic needs of the community, ” he said.