THIRD READING APPROVED

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25177, 7 May 1947, Page 7

THIRD READING APPROVED

TRANSPORT BILL IN COMMONS

OPPOSITION DEFEATED BY 114 VOTES (N.Z. Pres. Association—Copyright) (Rec. 9.15 p.m.) LONDON, May 6. The third reading of the Transport Bill, which nationalises railways, roadhaulage and other transport services, was agreed to in the House of Commons last night after a Conservative motion for rejection had been defeated by 308 votes to 194. The Minister of Transport (Mr A. Barnes) said that the Government was satisfied that the compensation decided upon for road-haulage undertakings was sound, fair, and quick in operation. He was still considering the two other aspects of compensation, first the circumstances in which a limited sum might be paid in cash instead of stock, and aecond, the method of compensat-

ing the haulier who had been refused permission to operate beyond a radius of 25 miles and who elected to hand to the Transport Commission only part of his assets.

Sir Douglas Maxwell Fyfe (Conservative), moving the rejection of the bill, said that the vital period was the 15 months before the dollar loan ran out- The Opposition claimed that the bill could not and would not during that period do a single thing to help transport or productive industry, ft would inevitably deflect the power and energy of those engaged in the industry and cause confusion throughout it. • • P. SI PK e . of the improvements made m i j hill, the Opposition had a deeprooted conviction that the measure was inherently rotten. The men who had Built up the road-haulage industry were now to see the things to which they had given their lives broken with,™t> a chance of rebuilding them until the Government was turned out and its policy altered.