CLOSING DAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 134, 8 June 1928, Page 8

CLOSING DAY.

AUCKLAND TRANSPORT

INQUIRY. COUNSEL. DELIVER ADDRESSES PANACEA FOR TRANSPORT ILLS. Counsel engaged in the inquiry by Royal Commission into Auckland transport delivered their closing addresses this afternoon. There was no sitting of the Commission this morning, counsel being given the opportunity to prepare their addresses. Mr. V. R. Meredith, counsel for the outside local bodies, put in the resolution passed at last night's local body conference (published elsewhere). He said the resolution was passed by the local bodies other than the City Council. He presumed counsel for the city would have something to say in regard to their own conference and the conclusions arrived at. Mr. H. M. Rogerson. who appeared for Mount Eden, Otahuhu and Ellerslie, said the transport problem was common to all the great cities of the world. It might be said that the Commission had been set up to privide a panacea for all the transport ills of the universe. The primary consideration was locality. The present conditions in regard to transport in the metropolitan area could not continue. He would not lay the blame to any individual's door, but the Council was in an anomalous position in having to control transport for an area outside its own boundaries. The natural solution within reach of the city and suburbs was the formation of a transport board. He woulc not dwell on the proposal of Greater Auckland raised by the city in opposition to a transport board. The city had used this opportunity to further its campaign for a Greater Auckland.

"The whole of th evidence goes to prove that, however admirable a Greater Auckland may be in its theoretical conception, it docs not at the present time show the slightest hope of being accomplished," said Mr. Rogerson. He said that Tamaki's amalgamation with the city became necessary because of difficulties in regard to local finance. During the last few years, he said, there had been four unsuccessful polls for amalgamation with the city, two at Newmarket, one at Mount Eden, and one at Mount Roskill. (Proceeding.)