THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES SATURDAY, MARCH 13, 1948. HOME DELIVERIES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26719, 13 March 1948, Page 6

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES SATURDAY, MARCH 13, 1948. HOME DELIVERIES

In the nature of things it is natural that where there are controls there are complaints, and petrol rationing offers no exception. The complaint of the city grocers that the allocation made to them is smaller than that received during the war and is insufficient to permit them to continue home delivery services is one which appears to be worthy of an investigation. The grocers have now informed the Dominion Oil Fuel Controller that, unless they receive a substantially increased allocation within ten days, they will have to cease home deliveries. The claim for more generous treatment is one which will be widely supported by housewives, who are already too much burdened with parcels on their shopping expeditions to regard with equanimity the prospect of adding the family groceries to the load. The controlling authority should be in possession of adequate data to guide him in making allocation to the grocers —who received sufficient petrol during the war to maintain deliveries—and the matter would seem to be one for a clear decision either to allow a sufficient ration once more or to refuse applications for petrol for grocery deliveries. Any compromise must produce confusion and irritation. If there is truth in the suggestion that the Government is investigating the possibility of starting a delivery agency in Dunedin for bread and meat, the creation of a hostile attitude among the grocers could give an excuse for extending such an agency to include the delivery of groceries. The reply of the Oil Fuel Controller to the representations which have been made to him may—or may not —throw some light on this interesting theorem. Apart from the grocers’ complaint, the suggestion that the Government may set up a delivery service is not one that can be welcomed. It would provide another example of the practice of causing dissatisfaction through controls and then magnanimously introducing some socialised scheme to give the public a better service than can be offered by private enterprise. It is not beside the point to contend that this method, if such it be, merely produces socialistic inefficiency instead of an inefficiency brought about by socialistic regulations. Both the bakers and the butchers have been at odds with the Government for a considerable period and the possibility of further State interference in business has been repeatedly suggested in these columns as a warning. The bakers, for example, have shown a marked reluctance to restore the bread delivery service and this reluctance has been the subject of comment by Government spokesmen. It was with this in mind that, in July of last year, we wrote: “If the appeal of the housewives will not move them (the bakers), solemn reflection may yet persuade them that by saving themselves trouble they may be signing their own businesses away.” The warning does not appear to be exaggerated. If the Government institutes deliveries of bread, it is then only a step to the establishment of State bakeries “in the interest of efficiency.” The same process could be extended to butcheries and to grocery shops, to go no further. Although there has not yet been any official statement that a State delivery service is contemplated, the prospect opened up by the mere suggestion of such a thing should give those who deal in the everyday necessary household goods cause to ponder the wisdom of their ways.