TYRE SHORTAGE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 20860, 12 August 1942, Page 6

TYRE SHORTAGE

POSITION IN DOMINION IMPORT CONTROL BLAMED “The Bureau ol' Importers cannot agree with the Minister of Transport, the Hon. R. Semple, when he said recently that the rubber position is something over which the New Zealand Government has no control and that if critics wanted a ‘scapegoat' they should concentrate on the Japanese or on the Malayan rubber icings who held on to the supplies until the enemy came in and helped himself,” was the comment in a statement issued in Auckland by the bureau. , , "Such a statement made hurriedly will, no doubt, be accepted by many oeople, but the bureau points out that the excuses given by the Minister are not in accordance with facts,” it continued. “In 1939 and early in 1940 supplies of tyres were readily available and rubber companies were anxious to export stocks to New Zealand, but the Minister of Customs, the Hon. W. Nash, refused import licenses and thus created a shortage within ■Jew Zealand. Such shortage, naturally has never been overcome and is a further excellent example of the insidious workings of the Import Control Regulations. “The Minister of Transport would orobably be very surprised to know just how much the imports of many 'ssential lines are still being stifled by die operation of import'control,” proceeds the statement. “It is felt that, he sooner the country realises that the regulations are preventing to a great extent the war effort by withholding essential and ‘critical’ lines, the sooner it will be able to appreciate the wisdom of abolishing control.”