POWER CHARGES.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 284, 30 November 1928, Page 6

POWER CHARGES.

The Transport Board is about to come into being, and in a week or two the control of the tramway system may pass out of the hands of the City Council. Yet in the last hours of its control the representatives of the Council negotiate a new agreement for the buying of power from the Auckland Power Board, and the Council adopts the agreement and passes it on to the Transport Board for execution. According to Mr. Allum this execution by the Board will be purely a matter of courtesy. It is\ very desirable, of course, that the tramways management should make the best terms possible for power, but why this haste? Why not leave the whole matter to the Transport Board? It is true that the City Council wiJl have a majority on the Board, so that even if the other members object to the new agreement this can be forced through, but this does not affect our contention. The composition of the Transport Board should not enter into the argument. The Board is a new body set up to control transport, and obviously it is the proper authority to negotiate a new agreement with the Power Board. When the proposed agreement comes up before the Board we hope that the non-Council members at any rate will take this line plainly. Moreover, the Board should place all the facts before the public. Mr. Bloodworth was quite right when at the City Council meeting last night he protested against the withholding of facts relating to this important matter. Other members thought that all the information should not be disclosed. Why? If the Transport Board is to command the full confidence of the public it must treat the public differently and be absolutely frank.