The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1928. A TRANSPORT COMMISSION.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 247, 18 October 1928, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1928. A TRANSPORT COMMISSION.

For the cause that lack* assistance, For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that *ce cam do.

J What is described, as "probably the biggest inquiry held in recent years" starts to-day in A Royal Commission has been set up to investigate the whole question of transport, and its order of reference is comprehensive in the extreme. It will consider not only railways, tramways and motor traffic, but also ferries and the coastal marine services. Its report will be expected to provide "a basis for legislation which will radically change the transport system of Britain," and some idea of the magnitude of its task may be gathered from the fact that the Commission will probably take at least two years to gather evidence and formulate its conclusions.

The primary duty of the Commission is "to take into consideration the problems arising out of the growth of road traffic." This clause in the instructions points clearly to the enormous multiplication of motor vehicles of different types in recent years as the main cause of that traffic congestion which not only in cities, but on all public highways throughout the length and breadth of Britain, has now become a serious obstacle to commercial transit and transport and a grave menace to the public safety. On this last aspect of the problem Sir W. Joynson-Hicks tells us that the question of protecting people in general from accident or death is now to the Home Office a perfect nightmare. The hospitals are said to be overcrowded as a consequence of "speeding," and the bare fact that 33,000 people have been killed in the streets during the past ten years in Britain proves that the Home Secretary has not exaggerated the perils that now threaten pedestrians and motorists alike on every hand. According to the "Daily Mail," during 1927 approximately 3000 new motorists took out licenses every week, and it is this amazing | growth of motor traffic that has at last compelled the Government to take steps to control and regulate the situation.

But quite apart from the public safety, there are, of course, many important aspects of the traffic question to he considered by the Concussion. The growth of motor traffic means competition "with railways, on the one hand, and tramways on the other, and. whether the loss has to be borne by the State or by municipalities, or by private individuals, a new and dangerous' rival has been introduced into the economic and commercial system. The adjustment of-relations between these competing methods of transport and transit is likely to. prove in future one of the most complex and difficult of all the problems of internal administration in eyery progressive community. Even in this little country we have already to face on a smaller scale all the questions that the Transport Commission has been asked to answer—the best means for securing the public safety and protecting railways and tramways against the aggressive motor—and the eventual findings of the Transport Commission should prove quite as valuable to us as to our kinsfolk in the Old Land. j