PETROL RISES 3D. A GALLON FROM TODAY

Wanganui Chronicle, 22 December 1950, Page 6

PETROL RISES 3D. A GALLON FROM TODAY

WELLINGTON, Last Night (PA). —Regulations authorising a’n increase of threepence a gallon in the price of petrol as from tomorrow morning, December 22, are notified in tonight’s Gazette.

The oil companies state that the rise in price is based on an accumulation of higher costs at the source combined with higher rates of tanker freights. These Increases, as in the case of other commodities, have been largely contributed to by the present international tension

The increase of 3d a gallon in the price of petrol is a severe blow to motorists, said Mr R. G. Farrell, pres: dent of the Auckland Automobile Association, tonight. The North Island and South Island Motor Unions had been pressing for some time for the removal of the 4d a gallon, which was imposed as a war tax, said Mr Farrell. Both the previous and the present Governments had refused to do so.

If an increase in price was necessary through rising costs, it should have been absorbed in the 4d. The Motor Unions had asked on what basis the Price Tribunal had fixed the petrol price, but had been told that the information was confidential. He added that the difficulty was to know where these rising costs were going to finish