A PETROL FAMINE.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LX, Issue 143783, 6 May 1912, Page 7

A PETROL FAMINE.

SITUATION IN CHRISTCHURCH. Per Press Association. CHRISTCHURCH, May 6. Regarding tho petrol famine, tho Vacuum Oil Company lias ceased supplying. One cause of the shortage is believed to be large purchases recently made by private speculators. All the garages boro have very short supplies. One firm reports it has secured a thousand gallons, wliich arc due to-morrow. Some garages arc supplying customers at cost price, others are charging 30s to 40s a case. VACUUM OIL COMPANY'S VIEW. Air. Hamijton, manager of tho Vacuum Oil Company, was interviewed by a. Dominion reporter on Friday in respect to the reports wliich were being received from the different centres in respect to an acute shortage of motor spirit. ‘‘lt is all very absurd,” said Air. Hamilton. “There is, as a matter of fact, enough spirit in the colony to keep all the wheels going until June l:j —then there would he a slight shortage until the steamer arrives on June 30 or July 1 with a cargo of spirit.”

in the meantime there has been a run ?

‘■Run?—l should think there had—if I were to attempt to supply all xho orders on hand, 1 could dispose of all the whole of my x>rosent stock and 3000 cases besides. People who ordinarily order 2(J-case lots are urgently requirjug dO-ease lots, and the 5-case man nauts ten cases.- Of, course, i am not fulfilling these orders. It would be palpably unfair to sumo to assist others to 'boost’, the price. 1 am just fulfilling the steady orders, without noticing the demands for largely-increased lots. What i would like to say is that we have not raised the price at all of any kind of motor spirit, and if all rye hear is true people are paying quite unnecessarily high prices for it in other places. If wo had listened to the ‘hot air’ talked, and made ourselves party to it, we could have easily have made from £2OOO to £3OOO during the past week, hut we did not think proper to impose any extra charge. The prices to-day to the public are as follow :—■ Gasoline, 2s Del per gallon; benzoline, Is tljd per gallon; motor spirit, Is fad per gallon ;and benzine, Is old per gallon. Wo don’t sell enough gasoline to float a tin boat on—it is used to create an allumiiuiting gas for picture show machines, where there is no electric plant. Benzoline is mostly used in tile uroductiou of air gas for light and heat. Nearly all the motor-driven veiiielos, cars' and cycles use <««!ier motor-spirit (petrol) or benzine.”