PRICE OF PETROL.

Taranaki Daily News, 28 April 1916, Page 6

PRICE OF PETROL.

ANOTHER RISE IN THE SOUTH. Christchurch, April 24. Another rise in the price of petrol locally has taken pjace. The price in December, 1914, four months after the outbreak of the war, was 15s (id, 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 a gallon, but an appeal was made on behalf of industrial users of the spirit and the proposal was dropped. To-day the price of petrol is 20s 4d a case, equivalent to 2s Gkl a gallon, so that the net increase in price over peace tiniq. quotations amounts to ' -i ( i a gallon, li]([ a gallon more than the impost which the Government declined to impose, ill order to protect the interests of industrial users. A feature of the rises during the war has been the fact lint they came unheralded in almost every instance, so that dealers had no chance !o limit supplies at the rate ruling before the. rise. The last rise, which anionniod to about 2d a gallon, was announced with dramatic suddenness, so suddenly that firms placing orders with representatives of one of the oil companies in the morning were informed later that the rise lmd taken place during the absence of the representative from the ofTiee, and that they must pay the new rate for that morning's orders. Supplies also are said to be running short in Christchurch,-and orders from merchants have recently been arbitrarily curtailed by 50 per cent.