PETROL CONTROL DIFFICULTIES.
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WHILE WE ARE ALL busy trying to aciustom ourselves to the 'inevitable by realizing the great and growing needs for petrol for truly aational purposes, it has perhaps net occurred to all of us that petrol control, or indeed control of any other Widely used commodity, is a task not ,without its considerable .difficulties from the OontrolIer'a Point of vieW. Those who in peace time experienced the excitements of running the gauntlet of ingeniously contrived police traps on the Open road May recall that the telephone trap over a measured considerable distance was a failure because of the inability of the police to _prove, to the sa,fisfaction of the law, the identity of a car and its driver at both ends of the trap. A difficulty of somewhat comparable nature has been encountered by Excise officers under the new 042
regulations seeking to establish the improper ownership of petrol on a car on the road. It is not sufficient to take a sample from a car tank of ascertained capacity to prove that it contains all petrol. Some of it may be paraffin or other adulterant which would settle at the bottom, and if so must be detected for a report as to its nature to be legally _acceptable. This involvekthe removal of the whole of the tankful and, of course, short of confiscation, which is not
authorized, this must be replaCed. It i therefore almost a matter of impossibility to secure sufficient evidence in most cases to enable a prosecution to be undertaken for joy-riding on petrol if the owner or driver is prepared to contest the accuracy of the inspector's surmise. It is extremely difficult for him to say, "What fuel the engine is actually using, although he may satisfy himself that his sample is
petrol or a scheduled substitute." '