Petrol

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33966, 6 October 1975, Page 14

Petrol

Sir, — Since the O.P.E.C. oil increase, there has been a gross over-reaction in New Zealand. There are unreasoned emotional shouts of “petrol rationing,” “ban the boat”, “ban motorsport”, "ban ...” all but “ban the private motorist”. But when one looks critically at the consumption of our oil imports by the private consumers, in our hallowed horseless carriages, one sees it amounts to only 6 per cent, which means that 94 per cent is used by other areas of society, a large proportion being used as an.

energy source by industry. Therefore, I suggest to the Government, and to the reactionary pessimists among us, that it would prove far more fruitful to carry out a survey on wastage in industry with as much verve as is put into ways of persecuting the private motorist. One cannot dispute that this paranoiac species should do his part, but if he cuts his consumption by 50 per cent it means a total savings of only 3 per cent. — Yours, etc. J. S. FAIRCLOUGH. October 4, 1975. Sir, — The recent editorial and some letters accept the possible need to ration motor fuel, but see this as a complicated last resort. Others would "atone for use they are inclined to by banning those they have no mind to.” I suggest that the simplest and laziest means of rationing private use would be to give a standard ration to each person in his sight as a citizen, irrespective of what fuel gobbling machines he may own. Then he can use it in a big car. a small car, a motor scooter, a lawnmower, or a speedboat, according to his own priorities, and should be permitted to sell it to the highest bidder — a form of “white market” as advocated by some correspondents. Administration would be greatly simplified, and the scheme might do a little to equalise incomes. — Yours, etc,, JIM McCAHON.

Sir, — One solution to the inevitable petrol shortage would be to revert to the use of trolley buses for public transport in cities. Memories of the smooth, quiet, pollution free run to North Beach by trolley bus make one ponder the reasons for scrapping them in favour of diesel buses with their choking exhaust fumes and reliance on overseas oil supplies. Wellington and Dunedin, to their credit, have retained some trolley buses although the pollution problem is negligible in those cities. Dunedin, with its own hydro-electricity generator, had power to spare for the national grid at one time. Various proposals for hydro generators have been considered and dropped in the Canterbury area. The petrol crisis should spur local authorities to explore the possibilities of this latent potential source of a substitute for expensive oil. — Yours, etc., DISPENSE WITH OIL. October 3, 1975.