Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), Friday 21 December 1945, page 3


PEOPLE BUYING HEAVILY

FOR CHRISTMAS

The Christmas shopping rush continued in the city yesterday, with hectic moments and intervals of comparative calm.

"A welter of mad spending" is how one department managers described

it.

The people, he said, seemed to have plenty of money, and with the coupon handicap considerably lightened, had been buying heavily.

At a men's store in Bourke st yesterday a delivery of 20 dozen handkerchiefs was swept from the coun-ter in less than 10 minutes. A new batch of bathing trunks was bought five minutes after being displayed.

The rush on men's shirts was described as phenomenal. In the last two weeks this store has sold 1,000 dozen white shirts.

The trend of the shopping indicates that perfume, stockings, and jewellery of the cheaper variety will also figure prominently in Christmas stockings. One leading city store has decided to close all day Monday (Christmas Eve). The others, however, will remain open.

HEAVY CHRISTMAS MAILS

The public had responded well to the injunction to "post early," and the bulk of the interstate Christmas mails had been cleared up, Mr. W. A. Martin superintendent of mails, said yesterday. On the other hand, many people had left it until now to post their suburban and country greetings, and these mails were likely to be heavy until Christmas.

Because of restricted rail services there was likely to be a heavy delivery on Saturday, Mr. Martin said. Tonight's trains would bring the final Christmas mails from the country, and to cope with these there

would be an extra delivery tomorrow.

Wednesday produced an all-time Victorian record for registered mail, Mr Martin said. A total of 47,000 parcels were received at the registered section during the day.

REDUCED. TRAIN SERVICE

The skeleton country passenger train service announced by the Railways Department last week will begin today. There will be only three trains each way a week on main country lines, and two a week on less busy lines.

The new cuts represent a reduction of 40% on the 60% reduction which operated until yesterday. In

effect, His department will maintain [ only a skeleton service on country

lines.

"Don't travel unless you must!" is the injunction of transport officials.

PETROL SALES

No petrol will be sold after pm on

Christmas Eve.

A representative of the Victorian Automobile Chamber of Commerce said yesterday that garage owners had been notified that they must close their doors at pm on Monday, Tuesday (Christmas Day), and Wednesday of next week, and on Monday and Tuesday (New Year's Day) of the following week in compliance with Federal Government regulations. There was nothing, however, to prevent garage owners from clos-ing altogether on those days, or on any other days, for that matter.

The direction applied only to sales of petrol. Mechanics, however, who operated under the Metal Trades Award, were permitted to work behind closed doors at garages during the afternoons of those' holidays, he

added.