PROTEST MEETING.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20231, 15 February 1934, Page 10

PROTEST MEETING.

Minister’s Decision on Petrol Prices. STRONG CRITICISM. A special meeting of the executive of the South Island Motor Union is to be held in the course of the next few days to discuss the announcement of the Minister of Industries and Commerce (the Hon R. Masters) that it is not. the intention of the Government to fix maximum and minimum prices, either wholesale or retail, for the petrol trade in New Zealand. In making this announcement, the president of the Union (Mr F. W. Johnston) said that it was inconceivable that the Government should have introduced a Bill for the fixing of prices and piloted it successfully through the House without a full know-' ledge of the matters which would have to be taken into consideration in fixing the prices by Order-in-Council. It was equally inconceivable that the Government secured the passage of the Bill through the House with the full intention of not bringing it into operation by an appropriate Order-in-Council fixing prices. “ Personally I cannot subscribe for one moment to Mr Masters’s pronouncement that fixing the price of petrol is surrounded with tremendous administrative difficulties,” said Mr Johnston. “ Petrol is a commodity which affects the commercial life of the whole community, and in, this respect cannot be compared with any other article of commerce. Moreover, the fixing of a price, maximum as well as minimum, would not be at the cost of the general public if the effect of fixing prices were to keep alive the Associated Motorists’ Petrol Company, Limited, the only real opposition to the major companies. “ The extinction of this company obviously must result in a greatly enhanced price of petrol to the public. Apart altogether from the Minister fixing maximum as well as minimum prices, the public may rest assured that so long as the Associated Motorists’ Petrol Company, whose policy is controlled by men holding the highest positions in motoring organisations today, remains in existence prices will not be permitted to soar to undue heights. “The executive of the South Island Motor Union, one of the petitioners to the Crown in connection with the matter, will hold a special meeting shortly for further consideration of Mr Masters’s statement on behalf of the Cabinet.”