Farmers In Otago Want More Petrol To Harvest Wheat

Wanganui Chronicle, 24 March 1948, Page 8

Farmers In Otago Want More Petrol To Harvest Wheat

Federated Farmers of New Zealand will be asked to bring pressure to bear to have the control of petrol rationing decentralised and placed in the hands of competent district committees similar to those which operated during the war period.

This decision was made at a meeting of the Otago sub-executive of Federated Farmers inb Dunedin recently. It was also decided that the chairman of the National Aid for Britain Council, Mr. F. P. Walsh, be informed immediately that the Otago province is experiencing difficulty with petrol supplies for primary production, those particularly affected being transport operators. Mr. C. E. Forsyth (Kelso) said that Mr. Walsh, during a recent visit to urge th e growing of more wheat, had assured the farmers of an ample supply of petrol and had emphasised that there would be no occasion for them to worry. If any difficulties occurred, Mr. Walsh had said, the farmers were to approach the chairman of the Dunedin committee, Mr. Burgess. Unfortunately serious difficulties had arisen, but Mr. Burgess was out of town and there was no one to act for him

Transport operators, for instance, could obtain no additional supply when their small allocation was used, Mr. Forsyth continued. In his own district between 4000 and 5000 sacks of wheat were lying out in paddocks because the transport operators had no petrol with which to take the grain away.

“The position is most unsettling,’’ Mr. Forsyth declared. “The carriers do not know whether to make their petrol spin out for a month and refuse work, or to do all the work possible until their supply is exhausted and then attempt to obtain more petrol. The farmer cannot plan ahead. He is busy heading wheat and finds that the carriers cannot take it. We all know the damage that rain would cause to wheat lying in the paddocks.’’ Urging the decentralisation of control, Mr. J. S. Mosley (Stirling) said that there must be hundreds of thousands of applications for extra petrol going to Wellington lor consideration by officials who knew nothing of the circumstances of the applicants. It was absolute foolishness by the Government to conduct the petrol rationing scheme on the present lines. Strong exception to “bureaucratic control” in Dunedin and the general unsympathetic attitude shown towards farmers was taken by Mr. J. E. D. Roberts, of Middlemarch. He gave instances of where requests for additional petrol for busy periods oi production on the land had met with a firm refusal of any petrol until next month’s ration was available. Mr. Roberts also mentioned cases of luxury travel and heavy allocations of petrol made for this.

Other speakers referred to the reduced supply of petrol available to officers of the Department of Agriculture. Poultry and dairy officers were unable to'visit farmers unless the farmers provided transport. It was stated that no consideration was being shown by the petrol rationingauthorities for peak production periods on farms. Members agreed, and it was generally considered, that only immediate action could avert the disastrous consequences threatening primary production in the province. It was mentioned that Otago was the only province in the country in which the acreage of wheat had been increased, and it was agreed that an immediate approach should be made to Federated Farmers of New Zealand and to Mr. Walsh in an endeavour to obtain a solution to the present problem’s confronting farmers.