RUBBER SITUATION

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 201, 23 May 1944, Page 4

RUBBER SITUATION

Demand Exceeds Supply

Reference to the rubber situation was made last evening by the Minister of Supply, Mr. Sullivan, who said that information dated March 18 from the office of War Information in Washington advised that Mr. Bradley Dewey, Rubber Director, had stated that “although the nation is now producing synthetic rubber at a. rate greater than the rate at which crude rubber was consumed in the United States in any year prior to |941, the nation's military anil civilian demands for tyres and other rubber products still continue to exceed the supply.” The Minister also quoted, the following advice to motorists issued from the same source: —“A serious situation can be avoided and drastic action averted if the public understand that their tyres must be made to last, while a steady flow of goods is maintained to the armed forces and essential transportation. ... In this connexion it is well to remember that the life of a tyre at 35 miles an hour is 50 percent, longer than at 50 miles an hour and three times longer than at 60 miles an hour. . . . This position spells a continuing shortage as- far as the American civilian is concerned and accentuates the neM for even greater conservation of tyres now in use. Some carelessness lias crept into conservation practices as the rubbersupply situation seemed to approach clarification. Now a renewed effort must be made to extend the life' of existing tyros.” “The urgency of the need for conservation so strongly expressed by Mr. Dewey is equally applicable to New Zealand, and I again solicit the co-operation of all road users in the conservation of tyres,” said Mr. Sullivan.