Petrol Rationing

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26127, 1 June 1950, Page 4

Petrol Rationing

The end of petrol rationing has unusual importance because it marks the end of the restrictive controls on commodities that were established in New Zealand during the war. A post-war improvement in the supply position allp wed petrol rationing to be abolished in June, 1946; but payment difficulties intervened, and rationing by resellers was reintroduced in November, 1947. In March, 1948, the wartime coupon system was reinstituted. The payment difficulties, which were tied to the sterling area’s dollar-shortage problem, have now been resolved by increased output from oilfields and refineries in the sterling area and by an arrangement between the British Government and American oil firms under which any petrol from the dollar area that may be required to support the free market will be obtained without spending additional dollars. There will still, of course, be a call on New Zealand overseas funds for petrol; and dollars will still be involved to some extent because even petrol produced and refined by sterling-area oil companies has a certain “ dollar content ”. Extravagant use of petrol, therefore, must be avoided, even though the market is “ free It is not expected, however, that New Zealand’s petrol consumption will increase substantially Because the ration has not been ungenerous, reactions to the- abolition of rationing will not be nearly as severe as in Britain, where petrol rationing has been much tighter than in New Zealand. Australia’s experience of a comparatively small increase in consumption should be matched here. There may be an increase in revenue from tax on petrol; but the most important advantage to the administration of the country will come from breaking up the rationing machinery. The costs of the system and its supervision will be saved and civil servants will be freed for other work. Whether they take more petrol or not, commercial firms and private motorists will welcome a development that rids them of irksome and time-consuming business connected with coupons and licences.