TRANSPORT COSTS

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 99, 29 April 1933, Page 7

TRANSPORT COSTS

DERATING DEMAND.

LOCAL BODY FRANCHISE.

COMMISSIONER'S VIEWS.

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

TE AWAMUTU, Friday.

. Mr. J. S. Hunter, Commissioner of Transport, gave an address last evening on the transport question. He had come up from Wellington especially to meet tlio6e concerned and to discuss with them some of the points not clearly understood. A survey over a number of years showed that the cost of road transport in New Zealand was increasing at an infinitely greater rate than the value of national production, said Mr. Hunter. The Government had £60,000,000 invested in railways, and a similar amount had been invested in roads. He estimated the amount invested in motor vehicles to be between £30,000,000 and £40,000,000, and that the annual cost of operating the transport system of New Zealand represented about £40 for every £100 of national production, showing clearly that the national transport system was over-capitalised. A few years ago road haulage had generally been restricted to small areas, enabling local bodies to deal with their own transport problems. It "was no doubt for that reason, he said, that the land had been made the basis of taxation, and that the payment of rates had been made the basis of franchise in local body administration. Mr. Hunter made referenceto the movement in the Waikato for the total derating of land. He pointed out that, • under such a proposal, the present basis of local body franchise would necessarily disappear. He considered it desirable, however, that a complete and dispassionate survey should be undertaken tjjy a competent authority, so that the relative incidence of the "local body quota" and the "user quota" should be established. ' . , , i a ■

Dealing with the new goods transport regulations to become operative on June 1, Mr. Hunter stressed the fact that all owners who had been operating a goods transport service when the Act was passed in November, 1931, would receive an automatic license for the first .year, as ne&rly as possible on the same 'terms a;id for the eame services to which they had been accustomed, but that owners who had commenced a service after that date would require to apply for a license, when each case would be considered on its merits. The general rule was that all persons carrying goods for hire or reward must obtain a license, but exemption was given to persons whose sphere of operations was confined to a borough or town district. The area of exemption had been increased to five miles beyond the borough limits, although in some cases a greater exemption had been granted.