UNIFORM PETROL PRICES

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 163, 28 July 1937, Page 3

UNIFORM PETROL PRICES

Automobile Association* s Representations REMOVAL OF ANOMALIES The' council of the ' Automobile Association •{Hawke's Bay) has decided to urgeitfiat steps should be taken immediately. to Temove the pres'ent anomaly ■in . the ■ price of petrol in.Kew Zealand. To that ' erid it is 'to ; place representations before the Goyernmeht to have a uniform price fixed . thrpughout the Dominion. . - • , ' - . On Monday,' Messrs.' J. E. Peaeh and R. M. Chadwick m'et the Hon. W." E. Barnard, M.P., and plac'ed t'ho assobiation's pi-opo.sais beforo him. Mr. Peach, in presenting the association 's views, p&inted out that practically every product cpnnected with the motor indus'try was sold'at the same price from one end of the Eominion to the other. He inst'anced ' motor-cars, spare" parts, tyres and batte'ries. all of * which, he • said, could be obtained at the same cpst in, say," Wairoa^ as in Wellington or Aunkland. " The ' same " applied .to standar'd proprietary articles in other li'nes of business, such as safety razors, cigairettes and beer. In the opinion of the association there was. no- reasqn why the same system. of .-standar.dised prices should not apply to benzine,- which was one of the mpst "necessary commodities. of everyday life, Mr.; Feach added. The present system, w;herein . the prices . inereased; according to the distance of the re-eeller from, the central point of distribuuon, was not only manif estly unsatisl'ac.to.ry but imposed an unf air and unnecessary burden on all motorists living in the country districts — tliat was, on all but thoso who resided in tbe four main. contres. . . . A Dominion-wide fixed price would, it. was folt, be welcomed by re-sellers aud shoiilU not • present any difficulty to the distributors, to whom it should 'be just as ppssible to agree on a fair and reasonable national price, for approval oy the Government, as it was to distributors of motor-cars. It was f elt that the proposal made by the association would meet with unanimous* support from 'all the provincial dis'tricts, to 'whose residents benzine" was just as necessity a commodity as to the inhabitants and businesses of the four centres." - • • As a re'sult of Monday's discussion, the association is to hand *to Mr. Barnard 'cOpies of its proposals and supporting arguments for- circulation ambtig members of Parliament representing'the country -olectorates with a view to enlisting their support for the representations which w^ll be made to tho * Government. ....