OTHER PEOPLE’S IDEAS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 March 1942, Page 4

OTHER PEOPLE’S IDEAS

CONSERVATION OF PETROL (To the Editor.) Sir,-- Regulations governing the transport of stock in country districts were gazetted on Thursday night. It is about time something was done as thousands of gallons of benzine are being used in the transport of stock quite unnecessarily. The lorrying of stock in the majority of cases is a luxury and not a necessity, and a luxury that should not be allowed when petrol is so necessary for the defence of New Zealand. To prove what I say is correct, I tested it out two weeks ago. We —that is my sons and I —had 700 lambs and 40 fat ewes drafted for the freezing works. I got the buyer to count off two lorry loads of lambs, and divide them equally in two lots through the race gate. One lot was lorried and the other specially marked and put back into the mob and driven. The driven lambs did not waste one ounce and graded equally as well as the lorried lambs. The schedule cost of the whole mob if lorried would have been £l7 3s 4d. The driving cost two short days to Carterton. Mr Archer rushes into print to justify his schedule charges and the sinful waste of petrol. Any child on a farm knows that it is the size of ewes that determine the number that will go to load a lorry. We farmers would like Mr Archer to tell us why the transport charges for fat lambs have gone up 100 per cent, while fertiliser has only gone up 25 per cent. —I am, etc., S. DALGLIESH. Longbush, March 14.

The only recent increase in freight rates was one made in December, 1940. when the rate for stock was increased by 71 per cent., and that for fertilisers and lime by 5 per cent., stated Mr. L. M. Archer, managing-director of Wairarapa Transport, Ltd. These increases, he pointed out, were fixed by the Transport Licensing Authority and applied to all district carriers. Mr. Archer stated that a meeting held in Feilding, in 1937, of carriers, farmers, the Farmers’ Union, and stock and station agents, agreed that the carriers and farmers should each bear half the increased costs of transport at that time. The increased costs were estimated then at 15 per cent., and the tariff schedule was increased by 7| per cent., the other half being borne by the farmers.