RUBBER SUPPLIES

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 05, Issue 89, 10 August 1942, Page 2

RUBBER SUPPLIES

RUBUFF FOR MR SEMPLE

BUREAU OK IMPORTERS VIEWS

"The necessity for a degree of zoning to economise the use of ruin her is inevitable, but the Bureau of importers (Inc.) states that it cannot agree "with the statement recently made by the Minister of Transport, the Hon. R. Semple, when lie said that the rubber position is something over which the Now Zealand (Government had no control, ami that if critics wanted a "scape-goat'' they should concentrate on the Japs or on the Malayan Rubber Kings who held on to the supplies until the 1 enemy came in and helped himself. Such a statement made hurriedly will, no: doubt, lie accepted by a good i many people, but the Bureau points out that tfie excuses given by the Hon. Minister of Transport are not in accordance with facts, insofar as when in 1939 and the early part' of 1940 supplies of tyres were readily available and Rubber Companies were anxious to export stocks to New Zealand, the Minister of Customs, the Hon. Walter Nash, refused import licenses and thus created a shortage within New Zealand ; such shortage naturally has never been overcome, and is a further excellent example of the insidious workings of the Import Control Regulations. Again the calamitous situation in regard . to tyre stocks confronting this country is an instance of the effect that import control has htul on the procurement of essential supplies, and the Hon. R. Semple would probably lie very surprised to know just how much the import-s of many essential lines are 1 still being stifled by the operation of import control. It is felt that the sooner the country realises that the Import Control Regulations are preventing, to a great extent, the war effort by withholding essential and '"critical" lines, the sooner it will be able to appreciate the wisdom of abolishing import control on essential lines required for the 1 war effort."