MOTOR BUS REGULATIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 134, 8 June 1926, Page 15

MOTOR BUS REGULATIONS.

(To the Editor.)

Sir, —I am glad to learn that Mr. Bloodworth admits that my review of the history of the trams previous to 1919 is substantially correct, and sorry that my remarks re scrapping the machinery appears to him to be misleading. He says it is true it was scrapped, but not because it was worn out. I did not suggest that it was. What I intended to show was that the traffic had outgrown the power, a fact that the council had to learn. Mr. Bloodworth states that it was done in order to make it practicable for the Power Board to sign an agreement with the Government, under which the whole of the electricity required for Auckland was to come from Arapuni, and without such agreement the Government would not have been able to go on with the scheme. This view certainly could not have influenced the council when they purchased in 1919, seeing that the Power Board did not <ome into' existence until 1921-22. The fart is that negotiations for the purchase were entered into -without any authority fdom the council. I also learn that it has not proved a paying proposition to the Power Board, as they had to write off £125,000 on the purchase of the power house and provide the trams' with cheaper current than any one else. They also had to go to considerable expense to provide substations and strengthen the cables. As the estimated surplus to the Power Board up to March 31 next is about £40.000, with an ever increasing , demand it appears to mc that the trams contribution is a mere bagatelle. Mr. Bloodworth contends that the regulations are designed solely to protect the public from loss and iltimately from being left without transport facilities at all. It appears to mc to be a curious way to protect the people from loss, to make the buses charge more than the ordinary fares, and with regard to being left without means of transport he need not worry about that as it would soon right itself. There is no analogy between the Dunedin tram service and Auckland s, as they have not the same suburban traffic and have the advantage of a verycheap water service to generate their power. As an example of municipal enterprise I would suggest that the council take over the Farmers' Trading Co., and become universal providers, and Win:; in a regulation to force all other traders in the city to charge twopence per pound more for their goods m order that the council's trade mightP*T — I am. etc J. H. BRADNEY.