WARTIME TYRES

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 70, 23 March 1945, Page 4

WARTIME TYRES

INFERIOR QUALITY ROAD OPERATORS' PLAINT O.C. WHANGAREI, this day. "Unless we can receive some consideration to compensate for the inferior quality of wartime heavy duty tyres, the transport industry in New Zealand will face ruin," said the secretary of the New Zealand Transport Alliance, Mr. H. .T. Knight, before the Goods Service Tribunal in Whangarei. "The life of tyres used for transport purposes to-day, and produced under wartime conditions, is estimated at an average of from 7000 to 10,000 miles," said Mr. Knight. "The Alliance has many letters asking for action to remedy the situation, or to recompense operators. The tyres are useless for recapping or retreading. New Zealand to-day depends in the main upon Australian tyre production, and it is principally Australian tyres that receive such heavy criticism." Mr. Knight read letters of protest on the subject from Alliance branches in all parts of the North Island. The Alliance intended approaching the Government in an endeavour to have the landed cost of heavy duty tyres reviewed and reduced. Sir Francis Frazer, chairman of the tribunal, reiterated the tribunal's adopted formula for computation of tyre costs, which provided for 50 per cent purely to compensate for the inferior quality of wartime products.