NO IMPROVEMENT

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

NO IMPROVEMENT

MINISTER OUTLINES POSITION (P.A.) WELLINGTON, July 9. Commenting on the Canberra cablegram referring to exports to New Zealand of motor tyres, the Minister of Supply and Munitions, Mr D. G. Sullivan, said t-o-day that, although it was a fact that recent shipments had been somewhat larger than those received hitherto, the supply position generally had not improved. Earlier in the year, as the result of industrial difficulties, production fell back in Australia, and the supplies made available to New Zealand were redqced. During that time a number of permits was issued, but tyres were not available, with the result that the increased quantities now being received would do no more than partly satisfy the existing demand. It had been necessary, Mr Sullivan said, to secure considerable quantities of tyres from the United Kingdom, Canada and India, and inquiries were being made in the United States. Even if the expectations from those countries were realised, and if Australia were able to continue deliveries at the present rate, New Zealand would have barely enough to satisfy the rationing requirements, and certainly insufficient to meet the demands of the private motorist.

_ “Australia has undertaken to keep the users of essential motor vehicles in New Zealand supplied with tyres until the end of the year,” said the Australian Minister of Supply and Shipping, Senator W. P. Ashley, on Monday. He said this was being done under a war-time arrangement between the Governments of Australia. New Zealand and the United Kingdom. He felt that Australian motorists would not object to tyres being sent to New Zealand, because they were largely being used for the production of food for Britain.