PETROL SUPPLIES

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 64, Issue 4535, 11 February 1942, Page 4

PETROL SUPPLIES

NEED SEEN TO KEEP MOTOR TRANSPORT MOBILE “Petrol to keep our motor transport mobile is essential for flreparedness in case of emergency and for the smooth flow of production in our vital industries, both primary and secondary,” says the general secretary of the New Zealand Motor Trade Federation, Mr C. R. Edmond, in a statement forwarded to “The Courier.” “We have been at war for two and a half years. In that time petrol has been readily available in world markets and there has been in fact a sufficient surplus of commercial grades in America to force down prices. Tanker tonnage available has not been unlimited, but certainly adequate. How is it, then, that at the end of this period in which our sea communications were virtually untouched, our petrol supplies are found wanting in a moment of crisis? We cannot escape the feeling that things have been left undone that should have been done. In Britain, subjected not to the threat, but to the actual fact of intensive air attack and fighting the vital Battle of the Atlantic, supplies of petrol were available and still are available as a basic ration to keep transport on the road. The British Government has found from experience that in times of intensive assault private transport has a vital role to play in supplementing damages or disorganised public transport and in maintaining services of an emergency nature. In Britain, private cars are on the road, in use, ready for use, whenever the emergency call comes, as come it has on more than one occasion. “In New Zealand the need is equally vital. A raider need do little damage in a city such as Wellington to put out of action temporarily railway and tramway services. How then is the worker to reach his employment? Bread must be baked, the necessities of life produced, shops must open to serve the public, the production of materials of war must be expanded and intensified. The bus services available would be but a drop of water in the ocean. Personal transportation alone could take the load if it is ready. i “The present petrol ban will put an | end to that possibility if some action is not taken soon. The toll of exhausted batteries, corroded parts and perished tyres resulting from disuse cannot be remedied in a day. That toll of neglect may extract its penalty in human lives and our democratic liberties if it is allowed to continue. The Government alone can take the steps necessary to prevent it.”