TE AWAMUTU COURIER. Printed-on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. WEDNESDAY, 24th JANUARY, 1940.

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 60, Issue 4235, 24 January 1940, Page 6

TE AWAMUTU COURIER. Printed-on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. WEDNESDAY, 24th JANUARY, 1940.

PETROL RATIONING

NO ONE will deny the necessity for a reasonable rationing of imported fuels, and the Ministry of Supply made only an appeal to reason when announcing the return of petrol licensing last Thursday. It is merely a part we must play in the great war struggle, and citizens will not begrudge the effort or the sacrifice. Nevertheless the Government has striven to equalise distribution as widely as possible, preserving a maximum of individual convenience. So far as the announcement has gone Mr Sullivan refers only to private cars, but he has indicated broadly that other services are to be also asked tp economise in order to secure a thirty per cent reduction in consumption. Actually private cars account for 42 per cent of supply, and it seems perfectly obvious that greater economies in other directions will be needed if the all-in reduction is to be reached. We can anticipate that licensing, when required to enlarge the coupon system for larger users, will limit heavy and other types of haulage to the barest necessity, and the public can be expected to. co-operate fully. Already commercial transport has been advised to pool the services with a view to economies, thus cutting out the overlapping and waste mileage that accumulates under present conditions. It seems not improbable that commercial operators will be ready with a studied plan. In the past, however, any attempted merger or co-ordina-tion proposal has been suspect of monopoly by people who have no close insight into the position, but no such suspicions can be countenanced to-day. The people can properly regard the attempt to rationalise the public transport services as a definite method of curtailing the use of imported fuels as well as promoting a higher degree of efficiency. Together with the public services, however, the great number of uneconomic vans and trucks which could never be justified under a strict accounting even in peace time must pass under some restraint because in a time like this they register definite waste. With the coupon limitations placed on private cars, and the prospective curtailment of wasteful public services, the needless and uneconomic use of Government and commercial trucks of one sort and another must be checked. It can be accepted that the Government is fully aware of the directions in which the greatest waste arises, and can be relied upon to exercise the necessary restraints. Tn the use and distribution of petrol there is unquestionably a direct influence on the economic and trading structure as well as on the social habits of the people. Economy is not too much to ask for. Great Britain has certainly adopted greater measures of apportioning supplies than our. Government proposes to take. Mr Sullivan made passing reference to the international aspects, and it became apparent that the financial position is by no means unimportant. There are, of course, those partisans who would seek any means of discrediting the Government’s financial policy, but this question can be rightfully raised beyond the level of party politics. It is simply a question of international finance, involving New Zealand in a final balancing of the accounts through London. Thus every oil tanker sent to this Dominion is not. only a diversion of supplies from war purposes, but is also a drain on the funds which must flow through London. A recognition of that inescapable fact leaves us all confronted with the question whether we are true to our pledges to assist in the prosecution of this war while we permit any excess drain on supplies or available finance to continue. Or, to state it another way, whether it is not a necessary part of our war effort that we shall so regulate and economise in our demands that the maximum of available resources shall be available through London for the successful prosecution of the war. Tn these 4Htcumstances what the Minister said about the disloyalty of those who selfishly seek to abuse the supply position is very much to the point, and it needs an awakened public

opinion that there is nothing “clever” in abusing an open market for selfish purposes; and that the person who so pirates supplies is guilty of shameless disloyalty. The Government has trusted the people to exercise common sense and to recognise that in doing what is being done there is a genuine attempt to equalise those degrees of persona) sacrifice which our pledges to the Mlother Country imply. Very certainly a person who hoards petrol just now is short-sightedly selfish—is, indeed, either thoughtlessly or deliberately unpatriotic.