For the Army. To the end of October the actual imports of petrol from the beginning of February were 13,666,900 gallons. The actual issues of petrol to the end of September amounted to 11,666,000 gallons, and in October to 1,621,000 gallons. Perhaps I have given an incorrect figure there. To the end of September the actual imports were 9,422,000 gallons. The quantity we were led to expect we would receive in that period was 11,666,000 gallons. In other words, imports were less than expected, while issues were 9,574,000 gallons. It will be seen, therefore, that we received in that period slightly more than 2,000,000 gallons less than we were led to expect, and we issued about 150,000 gallons more than we received. That was from the beginning of February to the end of September. The total quantity which we were to receive to the end of the year was 18,350,000 gallons. The actual quantity imported was 13,627,000 gallons, so that there is a balance due to us of 4,723,000 gallons. That is our position. I do not know if the expectations of the oil companies in this matter of deliveries will be realised, or whether we will receive this year the quantity of petrol which at the beginning they told us we would get. There is the figure of 4,723,000 gallons due to us. Although that will be reduced before the end of the year it is, nevertheless, impossible to say whether we will close the year with the account balanced.
It is necessary also that Deputies should remember that there was no storage. In each month we distributed the quantity which we received in that month. In fact, there were months in which we had to gamble on the arrival of supplies early in the month in determining what the ration of petrol would be to the various users. We fixed the ration on the assumption that the petrol would be delivered, knowing that if by any mischance it did not come, there would be another outcry following a series of allegations about incompetence and mismanagement. The alternative was to leave the country without petrol for a week or two in order to protect our own reputations for competence and efficiency. In some of these months the quantity of petrol delivered was, in fact, less than that issued over the period. At no time was it possible to accumulate any reserves or to do otherwise than to administer in the best possible way the quantity of petrol coming to hand. I told the House already the reasons which led us to decide on the basis of distribution of petrol on a flat rate. It is possible to distribute it on another basis. We could attempt to assess individual needs and to allocate petrol to individuals on the basis of their needs. We know that one doctor may require more petrol than another, that one clergyman might require more than another clergyman or that one business man, because of the nature of his business, required more petrol than another business man. As between classes and individuals in each class there are variations in needs.
We could have set up some form of tribunal or some judicial or semi-judicial officer to attempt to assess these needs. We decided against that, because not merely is it impracticable, but nobody would be satisfied as to the fairness of the assessment. If one individual got ten gallons against another individual's eight gallons, assuming that both were engaged in the same business or following the same profession, there would be allegations of partiality, allegations that one individual had a pull with the Minister or with officials, or because he was a political supporter of the Minister he got preference over another who was not a political supporter. I think it is undesirable that these allegations should be possible, however untrue they might be, because here and there are individuals who believe in them and, consequently, there develops a general disrespect for Government administration and Government authority.
I felt that apart, therefore, from the impracticability of attempting that method of allocation, there were good reasons of public policy why we should fix the petrol ration upon a flat rate basis, giving to persons in particular categories the same ration, irrespective of their individual needs, and why we should try only to assess the requirements of classes, giving one class more than another if circumstances appeared to justify it. Consequently, private individuals, business men, persons who use cars for other certain very limited purposes, get their petrol rations upon the basis of the horse-power of their vehicles. Nobody can claim that the horse-power of their vehicles is influenced by personal or political considerations. It is according to the horse power of the vehicles that the quantity of the petrol distributed is determined.
We take out of the class of private car owners certain groups—doctors, veterinary surgeons, clergymen and one or two other minor groups—and give them, as classes, additional rations of petrol, but we do not attempt to distinguish as between the individuals in each class and their relative needs. If a person comes within the class of doctors he gets the doctor's allowance; if a person comes within the class of clergyman he gets a clergyman's allowance, and so forth; although we know, as everybody else knows, that some doctors have a different type of practice from others, and some clergymen have different needs from others. That system of distribution does not fairly assess their needs, nor attempt to do so.
The total quantity of petrol distributed during the month of September was 1,600,000 gallons. It is roughly the same in each month now. There are variations as between month and month in the requirements of petrol for special delivery purposes, but, roughly speaking, as between one month and another, the quantity required to maintain rations to all normal car users and the special services to which I have referred remains much the same. One hears frequently the advice that petrol should not be made available to private car owners at all, unless it is clear that those private cars are to be used for some specific and essential purpose. People object to seeing private cars at sporting events or being used for pleasure purposes or for purposes of personal convenience. There is behind that objection a very false assumption as to the proportion of our petrol supplies which goes to private car owners. It is true that the casual observer in the street sees— or appears to see—a larger number of private cars driven around than of other types of vehicles, and gets the impression that a fairly high proportion of the total supplies of petrol is being used by those private car owners. That is entirely incorrect. The total quantity of petrol used by private car owners is a very small part of the total consumption.
In the month of September, the number of gallons authorised to be issued to private cars was 143,000, against a total distribution of 1,600,000 gallons. Even if we were to stop that issue to private cars and conserve that petrol, the actual difference it would make in the size of the allocation to other users of petrol would be very slight indeed. It is necessary to remember that a very large number of these private cars used by business men are used for necessary and essential purposes, and that a great deal of employment depends upon the availability of transport—even if the transport be in the form of a private car—to the traveller or manager of a particular concern.
The big consumption of petrol is, of course, in goods vehicles. The commercial goods vehicles receive a basic allowance of roughly 400,000 gallons per month. That is the total quantity of petrol required to give the basic allowance to commercial goods vehicles. Hackney owners and certain other restricted classes of users receive 139,000 gallons; Government Departments of one kind or another receive 41,000 gallons; the rail and bus companies receive 184,000 gallons; industrial users, both agricultural and nonagricultural, receive roughly 70,000 gallons; and then there are large numbers of other classes receiving very much smaller basic allowances. The total quantity given out on these basic allowances was 1,086,000 gallons in the month of September.
The supplementary allowances, which are given to doctors, clergymen and veterinary surgeons, amount to roughly 50,000 gallons. Supplementary allowances to hackney owners, ambulances and other vehicles of a similar character, amount to 13,000 gallons.