LESS PETROL FOR AUSTRALIANS

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25589, 2 September 1948, Page 5

LESS PETROL FOR AUSTRALIANS

20 PER CENT. CUT IN PRIVATE RATION RESTRICTING DOLLAR PURCHASES CANBERRA, September 1. The Australian Federal Cabinet has decided to reduce petrol rations for private cars by 20 per cent, and other rations by 10 per cent. The cuts will operate from October 1. The ration for private motor-cycles will be reduced to a mileage more closely approximating that of private cars. Special consideration will be given in cases where the full reduction would involve dislocation of essential transport or cause undue hardship. Announcing the decision, the Prime Minister (Mr Chifley) said that the number of vehicles registered was increasing so rapidly that it accounted for a progressive increase in the consumption of petrol of about 260.000 to 290,000 gallons monthly. The Cabinet decision was dictated not only by the necessity to limit the purchase of petrol from dollar areas, but also by the increasing difficulty of the world supply position. There was also the necessity to conserve stocks for defence purposes. Australian petrol stocks were now only about 60 per cent, of the average pre-war holdings. He also indicated that the DirectorGeneral of Civil Aviation would move with the controllers of» liquid fuel to peg the consumption of civil airline operators. Subsidised internal operators would be restricted to sufficient aviation petrol for time-tables in force on July 1, 1948, and unsubsidised internal operators would be limited to 95 per cent, of this amount. Private owners, aero clubs, aircraft manufacturing and repair organisations, and others would lose 10 per cent. These cuts are the third made by the Government within a year.