USE OF PETROL

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 76, 7 August 1941, Page 6

USE OF PETROL

GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENTS DIHNTTL INSTRUCTIONS’ GIVEN MINISTER’S REPLY TO CRITICISM (From Our Parliamentary Reporter) Wellington. This Day. •The trouble r- that Ministers want everyone to do as they say and not do a they do." said Mr W, .1, Broadfoot (National. Waitomo) when criticising the use of petrol by Government departments and Ministers in his re marks on the estimates in ‘he House of Representatives last evening. Cuts were being made in the use of benzine by private individuals, declared Mr Broadfoot. and when one found the Government in control of enormous road services one wondered v hy the Government did not set an example to the rest of the community :,nd endeavour to save benzine. A lot had been heard of gas producers, but in that respect it seemed to be the private individual who showed an '-x ample, for the Government had lagged behind. Ministers were going all over the country in cars. Why could they not travel by rail” Ordinary members had to use the railway, so why not Ministers too? Another point was that ra. producers were manufactured under license in New Zealand, and » man who proposed to make them could The Minister of Industries and Com-n-erce (Mr Sullivan) said there were between 900 and 1000 gas producers on the road in New Zealand—both public and private—and he thought he was correct in saying that New Zealand had three times as many such producers as Australia. As for the licensing. it was done under the War Regulations only in one aspect, and that was a performance test to protect the public against exploitation through having “dud” producers foisted on to them. Already 40 producers’ plants had been attached to Railway Department vehicles. “In regard to the use of vehicles.’* added Mr Sullivan. “I can assure the House that the application of the beni zinc restrictions is being applied as i gidlv in the Govern men’, service as |to ordinary citizens. The instructions , have been most definite. The Prime ; Minister took a personal interest in the j matter, and notified all Ministers and j Government departments that there ! was to be a rigid curtailment of benI z ne consumption, and in the latest cut | there has been about a 10 per cent, cut I in regard to the Government use of i benzine.” The Minister of Raih :iy» ‘Mr ! Semple) explained that nearly all rail-* • way buses used diesel oil and not benj zine. Twenty buses had been converti ed to the use of gas producers, twenty more were in the process of being converted, and other would be converted |in due course. As far as road services | were concerned, the vehicles had been taken off the road, and the carrying 'done by between 150 and 200 vehicles had been transferred to the railways, with a huge saving in petrol, while the trucks had been handed to the Army for war purposes. There were more gas producers used in New Zealand or a population basis than in Australia.