"GAMBLING IN PETROL."

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18310, 18 February 1925, Page 9

"GAMBLING IN PETROL."

MENACE TO TRANSPORT DEVELOPMENT. BRITISH VISITOR'S WARNING. (SPECIAL TO "fat* PHS33. ') AUCKLAND, February 17. A suggestion that petrol is being regarded in some quarters in New Zealand as a speculative medium and not as thc essential commodity it really is was made by Sir Robert Walcy Cohen (managing director of thc Shell Transport and Trading Company and of thc British Imperial Oil Company), who arrived by the Makura from Sydney on a short visit to thc Dominion.

Sir Robert mentioned that it had come to his knowledge that dealers were being induced to take over quantities of petrol by statements to thc effect that prices were likely to move, and he made it clear that this practice was detrimental to adequate and regular distribution, and was a menace to the proper development of a very vital section of the Dominion's transport facilities. Sir Robert said he found an. almjost extraordinary position in New Zealand in regard to the oil business, in that the public of this country were being induced to speculate in petrol prices. It seemed to him that this was a most dangerous thing, as it was damaging, not only to business itself, but to the organised petrol distributing system throughout the country. To introduce into serious business of this kind the practice of giving "tips" to the public as to supposed probable falls or rises in petrol prices was reducing a business vital to thc welfare of every country to the level of a gamble. Those engaged in this practice would sooner or later burn their fingers, and he thought it a most disturbing feature.

"I Lave made it my business in Australia and New Zealand," added Sir Eobert, "to search out the transportation needs of these countries, and have endeavoured to help the British Imperial Oil Company to serve the serious transportation rquiremonts, so that just as in the Home Country there may be developed in New Zealand a steady, economical system of distribution which will bring to the motor industry its most vital need—petrol as cheap as the world market price will permit. Instead. I find that the industry is disturbed by this speculative spirit of adventure which, if it continues, may eventually result in petrol being dearer in New Zealand than in any other country. "Tho sufficient and cheap distribution of petrol demands the. expenditure of very, large capital sums, and the great oil organisations will certainly not feel encouraged to undertake this until the oil business in New Zealand is reduced to a serious plane. The forces which make for the rise and fall of the petrol markets are so vast that even those whoso lives are being spent in an endeavour to copo with them would never venture to" make a prophecy as to when the market may rise or fall. Apart, therefore, from the hindering effect, of this practice of gambling in petrol, I fear that it is likely to discredit the trade, and sooner or later to bring serious losses to those upon whose financial strength and consequent efficient service tlio channels of trade between the importer and the consumer depend." Sir Bobert said he had noted that the Government of New Zealand had determined upon a'very wise policy of creating good roads. With the building of good roads. would come the creation of a wider system of distribu-' tion, and nothing would hold back this development unless inefficient organisation of the petrol distributing system. His company was spending very large sums ifl Australia to establish this system to keep pace with the steady development of good roads there, and it was for this reason that he was so much disturbed to find that trade conditions in New Zealand threatened to | hinder the application of these scientific methods to the same problem in the Dominion. . !