PETROL PRICES.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXX, Issue 18, 26 April 1916, Page 7

PETROL PRICES.

■\ t i 4 v_ ■ £ THE LATEST INCREASE. —U

(Christchurch Star of April 20.)

In December, 1914, four months after tlie outbreak of war the price of petrol in Canterbury was 15s Gd a case, equivalent to Is 11 'd per gallon, the nominal rate for times of peace. Since that date the price has fluctuated from time to time, generally in an upward direction. In August of last year the Government, searching for fresh channels of revenue, tentatively proposed a duty of 4d per gallon, hut an appeal was made on behalf of the industrial users of the spirit, and the proposal was dropped. iTd-day the price of petrol is 20s Id per ease, equivalent to 2s G‘d a gallon. I sty that the net i.ncreaso in price over ' peace-time quotations • amounts to “Id per gallon ,3:} d peiy gallon , onol-e thap~ declined to impose in order to prdtebt 1 the MntefetfW H of industrial users. A feature of the nses’ivu petrol prices during the war has been the fact that they came unheralded in almost every instance, so that dealers had no chance to lay in supplies at the rate ruling before the rise. Yesterday’s rise, which amounted to about. 2d a gallon, was announced with dramatic suddenness —so suddenly that firms placing orders with representatives of one of the oil companies during the morning were informed later that the rise had taken place during the absence of the representative from the office, and that they must pay the new rate for that morning’s orders.

Supplies, also, are said to ho running short in Christchurch, and orders from merchants have recently been arbitrarily curtailed by 50 per cent.

The oil companies do not/ as a rule, vouchsafe reasons 'for increases in price. The price of petrol, benzine, kerosene, naiptha and allied products is decided outside the Dominion, and it is in New York or London that the reason must be sought. A greatly enhanced demand, owing to the enormous supplies used for military purposes, and a world-wide rise in freight charges however, provide a sufficiently obvious brace of reasons for higher quotations. As the war continues, petrol will probably continue to soar, and may quite likely became increasingly difficult to procure in this Dominion. It may be of interest to householders to know that an increase in the price of kerosene was announced yesterday, making a rise in price since December last of l;,'d per gallon at wholesale ouot'a lions. Yesterday’s increase

minted to about 3\d per gallon