TRADE PROTEST.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 215, 10 September 1940, Page 9

TRADE PROTEST.

PETROL ALLOWANCE. MILLION GALLONS ASKED. An approach is to be made to the Government requesting an additional monthly allowance of 1,000,000 gallons of petrol for private motoring. This was the decision arrived at last night at a meeting organised by the Auckland Allied Motor Trades' Association and attended by about 150 representatives of all branches of the trade. Mr. H. M. Alder, the president of the association, was in the chair. It was decided to inform the Prime Minister that Government control measures over motor and allied transport industries, and particularly over the administration of petrol restrictions, -were hindering New Zealand's war effort. A further request will be made that the situation be re-examined, consideration to be given to factors so far overlooked because of the financial aspect, and that a directly affirmative or negative statement be made whether legislation introduced as war emergency regulation* will be abolished on the cessation of hostilities. Claiming that the industry was in a depressed state, Mr. Alder sail help was urgently required. It was time the Government recognised that the indu? try was essential and made more petro. available to the consumer, who represented the livelihood of the garage proprietor and the petrol reseller. Mr. E. C. Ximon quoted figures showing losses to the industry caused by the war and petrol rationning and dealt with 19 garages scattered throughout the province, which employed 375 hands a year ago and paid wages totalling £86,733. In July there were 234 employees, and this number would be reduced by half if there was not immediate relief. He added that the motor industries' imports for the first sis . months of the year showed a decrease of £2,685,069, compared with the same i period last year, which represented 74 per cent of the country's total import reduction for the period. Mr. W. A. Xehoff said the "conservation of the dollar fund" defence was not justified, because commodities not so necessary had eaten into the reserves to a greater degree than petrol. Mr. T. A. Low said there was no shortage of petrol in the world and! Britain and her Allies now controlled 50 per cent of the tanker tonnage of the world. Mr. H. Everett, organiser of the associafion, said another 1,000,000 gallons a month would cost New Zealand £300,000 a year, which should not militate against the successful prosecution of the Avar. Describing the matter as a national matter in which politics could have no part, Messrs. F. W. Schramm, P. Carr. W. P. Endean and A. S. Richards, M.P.'s, promised full support.