PETROL RATIONING

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27404, 1 June 1950, Page 6

PETROL RATIONING

Removal Sanctioned By Cabinet UNLIMITED PURCHASES TODAY PA WELLINGTON, May 31. Petrol rationing ended tonight, and the necessary Order-in-Council will be gazetted immediately. Making an announcement to this effect today, the Prime Minister, Mr Holland, said that Cabinet had given full regard to the sterling position when examining the subject. Cabinet, he said, appreciated that the removal of rationing would involve additional demands on New Zealand’s sterling funds, but these had shown some improvement (recently. It was considered that the extra burden involved in the purchase of additional quantities of motor spirit could be accepted.

Mr Holland said that it could be expected that a substantial portion of the additional petrol supplies needed would be supplied by British companies from sterling sources. “ During the past few days, the United Kingdom Government, in the course of discussions with the United States Government and American oil companies, has arrived at' arrangements by virhich the companies will provide, against payment in sterling, the necessary additional quantities of motor spirit to permit rationing to be removed,” Mr Holland said. “It is in these circumstances, and in pursuance of a policy which provides to the fullest possible extent for procuring our oil supplies on a basis that involves the least dollar expenditure, that the New Zealand Government has decided to terminate the rationing of motor spirit,”