TYRE CONTROL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26200, 10 July 1946, Page 4

TYRE CONTROL

SUPPLIES AVAILABLE

PERMITS NOT ISSUED MOTORISTS INDIGNANT The statement that, although it was imposible to obtain permits for tyres in Dunedin, there were warehouses in the city which had them in stock was made by speakers at a meeting of the executive of the Automobile Association (Otago) last light. It was also stated that tyres were much more freely available in northern centres than in Dunedin, and it was decided to write to the Minister of Supply, Mr D. G. Sullivan, complaining strongly of the position. “ The position as it is in Dunedin at the moment is most unsatisfactory," said the President, Mr H. S. Reid. “We have on the one hand a statement appearing in the press which, in short, states that tyres are available. This statement has been checked with the larger tyre wholesalers in Dunedin and has been found to be substantially correct. There are stocks in Dunedin. On the other hand, the tyre controller in Dunedin was very much perturbed when the statement appeared in the paper and informed us that it was incorect—that tyres were still in short supply and that it would be some months before the position was relieved and that because of this, he could not issue further permits.

“We have been informed by one tyre wholesaler in Dunedin that his next quota of tyres (which are

due within the next two or three weeks) is being reduced because he lias not got rid of his present stocks.

The position in Dunedin, then, would appear to be that either therb is some hold up in the local tyre control office regarding permits or that the permit quota the local office has for tyre distribution is too low and not in accordance with the demand or. the available supplies. It is possible that both the above reasons may be correct. It is known that the issue of tyres in other centres is easier than it is in Dunedin, and that, since July 1, tyres are being distributed in other centres in fairly reasonable quantities.” There was one town in Otago “ not a hundred miles from Dunedin," Mr Reid added, from which tyres werp being sent “ galore ” by one firm. The tyre controller there had evidently opened out and isued permits, but in Dunedin there were doctors, taxi firms, and others who needed tyres urgently and could not obtain them. Mr G. W. Ferens quote a case of some ex-servicemen who, he said, had started a transport firm. Urgently in need of tyres, they had appealed to the Rehabilitation Department and to the Minister of Defence, Mr F. Jones, but the only answer had been that their truck must go off the road. Yet there were tyres available in the warehouses in Dunedin.

Mr Reid: They are sending tyres from Dunedin to other parts of New Zealand.

The secretary, Mr P. F. Harre, quoted a case of a Dunedin firm of builders which had been forced to put trucks off the road at a time when suitable tyres were lying unsold in the warehouses.

“ It was the same when petrol rationing was still in force,” said Mr W. J. Mclnnes. “It was harder to get permits in Dunedin than anywhere else." “And the same office and staff are handling the tyre rationing," said Mr Harre