TRANSPORT ACT BREACHES

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27473, 6 October 1954, Page 10

TRANSPORT ACT BREACHES

Operators’ Suggestion On Penalties CONSIDERATION BY ROADS BOARD (New Zealand Press Association) . GISBORNE, October 5. Submissions that transport operators should be charged set “fees” tor such offences as overloading and tyrepressure breaches to eliminate numerous Court appearances were put to the Commissioner of Transport (Mr H. B. Smith) today by the New Zealand Road Transport Alliance. In his reply Mr Smith said that any system that replaced the jurisdiction of the Courts “would have to be a very good one indeed.” Mr H. McKenzie (Tauranga) had complained that transport operators were “arraigned before the Courts like, and with, petty criminals.” He suggested that it a case of overloading was proved to everyone's satisfaction a “fee” should be charged on a ton a mile basis, “sufficiently high to act as a deterrent but not high enough to break a man.” Mr Smith told the delegates: “This suggestion must be handled very carefully, because at present transport operators have access to a judicial system which is probably the best in the world, and any system which replaced the Courts would have to be a very good one indeed. This is a question which concerns protection of the roads. It will be discussed by the National Roads Board, and I will see that it gets proper consideration."