LICENSING OF TRANSPORT

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27472, 5 October 1954, Page 12

LICENSING OF TRANSPORT

SYSTEM ATTACKED BY OPERATORS BIAS TOWARDS RAILWAYS SEEN (New Zealand Press Association) ' . GISBORNE, October 4. Describing part-time transport licensing authorities as “the bench boys upstairs,” Mr J. A. Anderson (Franklin) said at the conference of the New Zealand Road Transport Alliance at Gisborne today that certain authorities tended to show bias toward the Railways Department when dealing with applications. He was srfpporting a remit, which was approved, “that the alliance draw public attention to the fact that for practical purposes the road transport licensing svstem of New Zealand has ceased to be a means of transport licensing, and has become purelv an instrument of railway protection. r ’ Sponsoring thfe remit, Mr. J. L. Black (Taupiri) said: “If the licensing system has not already broken down it is close to it. It should be called the Railway Protection Act,’ not the Transport Act. “These part-time authorities are the bench boys upstairs," said Mr Anderson. “The railways put up a case, and whether it is a good one or not the licensing authorities have to listen to the Railways Department. The authority looks at the railways and knows that he has his money on a horse with three legs, but there is nothing he can do about it.”