PETROL SAVING

Evening Post, Volume CXXXII, Issue 125, 22 November 1941, Page 11

PETROL SAVING

URGENCY STRESSED

AN AUTHORITY^ COMMENT

I am only telling- you what has been told to me by the Minister of Supply and the Oil Fuel Controller," said the No. 2 Transport

Licensing Authority, Mr. J,

Skoglund, Wellington, at a sitting of the Authority in Wanganui when pointing out that it was absolute-

ly necessary to conserve petrol.

There was an application before the Authority for the renewal of a licence which had previously been curtailed and it was stated by a witness that direct transport of wool by road in a case under notice was cheaper than in. conveying it by road to the nearest railway station and railing it the rest of the journey. Mr. Skoglund, in reply, stated!that the reason for the licence being curtailed in the first place was to conserve petrol.

The petrol position, he added, was much more acute today than when the licence was amended. As for the labour factor entering into the question —it having been suggested that labour was scarce and extra handling meant waste of man-power—he said that conserving petrol was more important today than saving labour.

Expressing surprise that carriers were carting wool direct by road in spite of the arrangement for them to take it only part of the way (to the railway station), Mr. Skoglund remarked: "There is an urgent need to save petrol and I understood that carriers would co-operate as a war effort. I am going to take fine care that in future when an agreement is reached it is carried Out."

It was also necessary, he stated, for farmers to conserve petrol and thus co-operate with the war effort.