RUBBER SUPPLIES

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 194, 18 August 1942, Page 6

RUBBER SUPPLIES

COLLECTION SCHEME

FARMERS' UNION ATTITUDE Interviewed this morning on the question of salvaging rubber, Mr. A. L. Robinson, secretary of the Auckland Farmers' Union, said that his organisation first approached the Government on this matter last February, and wrote again in April. The attention of the Minister of Supply was drawn to Press statements as to collections of waste rubber in Canada and U.S.A., where it was said "every ounce of spare rubber must be collected."

On June 2 the Minister was informed that since he was first written to large quantities of rubber had been used to start copper fires. In circulars to branches, however, farmers had been urged to conserve old rubber. The Wellington office of the Farmers' Union was informed by the Department that waste rubber was of little use.

Visitors to New Zealand, intensely interested in the rubber question by virtue of their official capacity, had informed him. said Mr. Robinson, that the Government's reason for not collecting waste rubber was the difficulty pf collection. He had replied that his union could assist very materially in this. As a result the Minister of Supply wrote that a scheme would be brought into operation utilising the union's services. "The union's interest in the collection of rubber," said Mr. Robinson, "is not confined to assisting in the direct war effort, although, despite all Government muddle and incompetence, the farming community is single-minded in its determination to do all possible to aid the war effort."

Mr. Robinson criticised the Government s collection plan on practical grounds. He said that garages were not always handv. Personally he deprecated the attitude of mind that called for pavment for everything, whether of value to the holder or not, but that attitude had to be reckoned with.

With regard to the collection of waste rubber in rural districts, the dairy sheds were likely to be fruitful sources of supply, but not the only sources. There were many thousands of square miles of country without a dairy factory. Reliance on the radio and advertisement to induce people to send in rubber to dairy factories was more futile than it had proved to be in inducing townspeople to carry rubber to garages. The Farmers' Union, however, said Mr. Robinson in conclusion, would do its utmost to get supplies.