RUBBER SHORTAGE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 January 1943, Page 2

RUBBER SHORTAGE

AND TRANSPORT ECONOMY

FARMERS’ UNION DISCUSSION POSITION IN WAIRARAPA. CRITICISM OF EXISTING CONTROLS. “The optimistic trash which appears in the newspapers about synthetic rubber production can be discounted,” stated Mr J. J. B. Connor, of the Transport Department, in emphasising the gravity of the rubber situation when he addressed members of the Wairarapa Provincial Executive of the Farmers’ Union in Masterton yesterday afternoon. Mr Connor said that when the Japanese took Malaya, 93 per cent of the world’s raw rubber output was wiped out. One and a quarter million tons of raw rubber went west. In the rest of the world, only a quarter of a million tons was annually produced, mostly from Ceylon, a place that was still under threat of invasion. Brazil only produced 2,000 tons a year of first-class rubber. A gap of 1} million tons had to be made up in two ways: Firstly, production of synthetic rubber, and secondly by economies. The European countries were years ahead of Britain and America in the field of synthetic production. Great Britain, before the fall of Malaya, had no reclaimed rubber industry, while America produced only 12,000 tons a year. The production of synthetic rubber could not be done in five minutes. The war could be lost on the rubber situation. The critical period fell this year. The Government here viewed the matter as serious. If transport failed, half the land would go out of production. Wool, meat, etc., had to be transported, although stock could be driven. If anyone thought the war would finish soon, or, say, in three years’ time, it would be some seven years before things could be got back to normal. The tire situation here was very, very grave.. Every vehicle mile that could be cut had to be cut, with, of course, regard to local circumstances. SERIOUS WASTE ALLEGED. “Reference to the tire shortage can hardly impress us in view of our experience in the Lower Valley,” asid Mr Andrew Linton. He alleged that the dairy industry in the Lower Valley had put forward proposals to save 56,000 transport miles annually, but the proposals had been effectively blocked by the local member of Parliament. A letter written to the Prime Minister on the matter three months ago had not yet been answered. Thus cream was still being carted from the Lower Valley to the Mauriceville butter factory. Mr R. W. Kebbell: “A great example of tire conservation!” FARMERS AND CARRIERS. The fact that the farming community did not have direct representation on the Masterton Goods Transport Emergency Committee was stressed by Mi’ L. T. Daniell. “The direction of the Minister of Transport ordering all carriers to join one organisation has not been carried out,” said Mr Daniell. “Preferential treatment to one or two should be cut out, and carriers should be all in or all out of the merger. The Minister's statement that he would deal only with the majority and not with the minority has not been carried out . . . Some carriers feel they have been pushed into the merger under a mis- ' apprehension.” DEMAND FOR REPRESENTATION. “A transport control emergency committee has been set up in this district without reasonable farmer representation,’ Mr Daniell continued. "A representative of the farmers should be placed on the central committee from Carterton and one from Eketahuna. The central committee has actually made adverse decisions in regard to the cartage of stock without reference to the stock committee. This is because, although gazetted, the stock committee are co-opted members. In future the stock committee should have equal rights with other members of the com- ■’ mittee.”

“It is of interest to note,” said Mr Daniell, “that in 1939 carriers owned 71 per cent of the transport vehicles of the Dominion; yet today they are attempting to control 100 per cent. Of the 68 heavy trucks impressed in this district, 33 were taken from farmers, 23 from private or ancillary users, and only 12 from the carriers.” The farming community, he continued, had felt that if they yielded their own trucks in the common cause, they could rely on fair treatment from the owners of transport vehicles. The transport control committee had been given the right to impose a levy on users, and might do so without reference to the stock committee.