MAINTENANCE PROBLEM

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 6, 8 January 1942, Page 6

MAINTENANCE PROBLEM

All car owners are concerned over how they are going to keep batteries and tyres in order if their cars are to be stored in garages for any length of time,. as seems likely. To E.P.S. personnel who must use their cars for emergency work the problem is serious, and representations have been made by the Mayor, Mr. Hislop, that such E.P.S. members should receive a sufficient petrol allowance to ensure that their vehicles remain in good running order. ,

"The transport position of the E.P.S. is still most unsatisfactory," said Mr. Hislop. "Though we have already had allocated to us the greater number of the vehicles which we require, they will be of no use without the means to. run them—petrol.

"Certain steps have been taken to enable us to have a reasonably adequate supply of petrol for an actual emergency, but no means are provided to keep cars in running order to enable their owners to report in the event of an alarm.

"The consequence is that a large number of private cars is immobilised at present because the owners have no petrol to keep them in running order. Batteries are being run down, and tyres deflated. The position should be adjusted without delay. I have made representations asking that, say, two gallons of petrol a month should ■be made available to all private cars allocated to the E.P.S.

"The choice lies between an immediate allocation of petrol, or the defeat of the essential purposes of the E.P.S. This applies not only to Wellington, but also Auckland and any other vulnerable area which has an E.P.S. service."