Petrol supply uncertain

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33804, 29 March 1975, Page 1

Petrol supply uncertain

Petrol supplies to Mid and South Canterbury during the Easter holiday period are still uncertain.

If the Canterbury Drivers’ Union ban on 6600-gallon tankers is not lifted, service stations at Ashburton, Oamaru. and Twizel will be without petrol by about Sunday evening, according to the South Island manager of Shell Oil New Zealand. Ltd (Mr M. J. Shirtcliff). The secretary of the Canterbury Drivers’ Union (Mr P. R. Liggett) last evening declined to comment on the! outcome of a meeting . with | the Drivers’ Federation andi Federation of Labour officials! in Wellington on Thursday.! He would neither discuss the! situation nor say whether the i ban had been lifted. Mr Shirtcliff said he had! also been unable to learn if: the ban had been lifted. I

There was no doubt that the driver’s ban had caused the shortage of petrol in some places, he said. He denied union suggestions that coastal tanker delays had caused the shortage, that was "ridiculous.” “The union is putting pressure on us as a company to force the issue of drivers’ rates,” he said. There were plentiful supplies lof petrol at Lyttelton and! (Timaru, Mr Shirtcliff said. At! ;Lyttelton, there was enough' [petrol to supply demand for! !16 days, and at Timaru! I enough to cover 50 days. I ' Christchurch deliveries; I were continuing as usual,! i with the smaller 5000 gallon; (tankers. 1