PETROL SUPPLES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 215, 11 September 1931, Page 3

PETROL SUPPLES.

SUGGESTED RESTRICTIONS. ARGUMENT FOR AND AGAINST. Several garage proprietors in Auckland are at variance with petrol service station proprietors concerning the latter's proposals that the hours during which petrol may be sold by garages should be limited. Mr. Percy Free, manager of Northern Automobiles, Limited, and managing director of the Checker Taxicab Company, Limited, said that service stations must remain open for the supply of petrol and oil to necessary motor services, such as taxicabs. The proposal to restrict the hours for the sale of petrol was not representative of the views of the larger concerns in the city, and, if successful, would create many difficulties. There were 3CO service stations and garages within a radius of 20 miles of Auckland, but only 111 signatures had been attached to the petition asking for restrictions. The signatories included only a few proprietors employing labour, and if the petition was successful further unemployment would be caused, as proprietors would be compelled to dispense with a number of their hands. Should the restrictions be imposed private ear owners all over Auckland would store petrol, which constituted a danger and was against the regulations, unless special accommodation was provided.

Another motor merchant, Mr. W. S. Miller, yesterday expressed surprise that the Automobile Association should even entertain giving its support to the proposal, and this has led to criticism of his attitude by Mr. L. R. Dickson, of Dickson's Service Station. "Mr. Miller infers that should the proposals become operative he would be able to dispense with the services of some 12 men," said Mr. Dickson. "Does he expect even the most credulous to believe that he employs 12 men after 0 p.m. for the sole purpose of pumping petrol, and further that he pays them some £50 per week in wages ? If such were the case the 12 men would have to sell each night a minimum of 5000 gallons of petrol and a considerable quantity of oil merely to meet their wage account, without showing any overhead or profit for their employer. Practically 90 per cent of the service j stations in the Auckland province ars run by partners or families, and the i statement that the proprietors are workj ing in excess of 100 hours per week is perfectly correct, despite any statement to the contrary. Mr. Miller is perfectly aware that the petition presented to the Government was drawn up, signed and presented by the service station proprietors themselves, assisted by a Labour member of Parliament, who had no axe to grind. The limitation of hours of business will apply only to the sale of goods and will not interfere Avith the parking of cars or urgent after-hours mechanical repairs where, in any case, overtime rates of pay are enforced by law." ...•'.