A PROFITABLE RATE.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 123, 26 May 1928, Page 11

A PROFITABLE RATE.

EIGHTEENPENCE A MILE. PRIVATE COMPANYS CHALLENGE. CITY'S "IMPOSSIBLE" BASIS. "I should say that 1/6 a bus mile, which the City Council regards as the cost of bus operation, is quite impossible," said Mr. N, B. Spencer, chairman of directors of the Passenger Transport Company, under cross-examination at the Transport Commission yesterday afternoon. Witness added that the company's buses were 20-seaters, and to earn 1/6 a mile it would be necessary to have every seat full for the whole of every journey.

Witness was unwilling to make public the takings per bus-mile. He said that the Beating capacity of buses was at present .strictly limited by the Public Works Department, which would not allow more than 30 seats.

Questioned by Mr. Northcroft, "witness said that if a local body would guarantee 1/6 a bus mile the company would be prepared to litind over the whole of its plant at the end of a year as a gift, free of any liability, except the mortgage on the garage, and it would be only too happy to do it. A recent average taken over a period of several months showed that the running cost was 10.7 d per bus-mile and the distance run in a year was about 175,000 miles, which would give an .enormous profit if 1/6 were guaranteed. When the witness concluded his evidence the chairman,. Mr. J. S. Barton, S.M., complimented him upon the manner in which the company's records were •kept.

Mr L. Alfred Eady, a member of the Auckland City Council, continued his evidence which had been interrupted; on Wednesday. He said that, in regard to his proposal for a power-transport board, it would be desirable to bring about a change in the boundaries of the Auckland Power Board, by including Henderson, Glen Eden, and New Lynn, which were now in £he Waitemata power district. Henry Joseph Wingate Bransgrove, traffic inspector of Mount Eden Borough, stated in evidence that he had been a member of the London Metropolitan Police for 25 years, and had held an appointment as inspector for a part of that time. He had been continuously concerned with traffic control, the inspection of vehicles and tlie licensing of l drivers. _ •>#<—

He described the rush-hour conditions at the foot of Queen Street prior to April, 1924, and said that he was amazed at the careless manner in which the travelling public was handled by the Tramway Department. * A marked improvement in the conditions, as far as Mount Eden and Dominion • Road were concerned, was brought about by the running of private buses. With the passing of the Motor Omnibus Traffic Act the people had become dissatisfied at being deprived of services which had been established by private enterprise. The feeder buses run by the corporation, he feaid, were inadequate and were also inconvenient. Light buses, running through to the city, he said, were necessary for the district.

The sitting was adjourned until Monday morning.