TEAMS ON TOUR.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 236, 5 October 1937, Page 9

TEAMS ON TOUR.

TRANSPORT BY BUS.

REQUEST FOR A LICENSE

"NEW COMPETITION DANGER."

The merits of a new form of

passenger transport license were discussed at a sitting of the Xo. 1 Transport Licensing Authority to-day when an application was brought by W. White and Sons to make trips '"in respect of special events recurring at intervals during the year."

'"There would be considerable danger, from the viewpoint of present licensed operators, in granting such a license," said the chairman, Mr. E. J. Phelan. who mentioned also the probability of unregulated competition with the railways.

It was explained by Mr. F. McCarthy, on behalf of the applicants, that contracts had been entered into with a number of Auckland sports bodies to carry teams to various parts of the province, and also to make trips for various lodges, and for officials engaged on totalisator duty at race meetings outside Auckland. The area over which the company desired to operate extended to Whangarei in the North, and to Tauranga and Rotorua in the South.

To a question whether schedules of fares had been prepared, the reply given by the applicants was that the arrangements made were by contract and not on a mileage basis. Each of the contracts was independent of the others.

"The authority would want to know in each case what you propose to charge," said Mr. Phelan. "Its business is to control the charges, and probably these would vary according to the conditions. In hilly country and over secondary roads the charge would probably be at a higher rate than where the running costs were lower."

Mr. McCarthy remarked that as the application was the first of its kind in the Dominion the applicants had no guide as to the kind of information necessary, and to supply a schedule of charges would require considerable investigation.

Commenting that a number of similar applications might follow, which would intensify competition, the chairman adjourned the case to enable the applicants to prepare information as to the charges. He stated that their right to run trips temporarily would not be prejudiced by the delay.