Cook Strait Vehicular Ferry

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28425, 4 November 1957, Page 10

Cook Strait Vehicular Ferry

The interim report of the Cook Strait Transport Inquiry carries very little further the question of a service for vehicular traffic across Cook Strait. The report summarises evidence and gives the main conclusions reached by the committee. It is not a complete report, because the committee is not yet able to deal with the key question: whether the service should be by sea or by air. The committee has insufficient information about the availability of aircraft suitable for the service. It is now evident that what caused the Government to abandon arrangements for the Union Steam Ship Company to buy a modern ferry with money lent by the Government was a movement to have the possibility of an air ferry further investigated. There was a sense of urgency when the then acting-Prime Minister (Mr Holyoake) announced that the Government would lend the Union Company £ 1.500,000 for a shin that would take at least three years to build. “ The most “ important consideration ”, Mr Holyoake said, “ had been to ** arrive at a decision, so that “ an order could be placed early ° for the construction of a suit- ** able ship ”. The urgency of July, 1956, had disappeared by March, 1957. The Government was then content to keep the once-rejected Tamahine in Service—at heavy cost to the Government while further inquiries were made at the instance of persons favouring an air ferry. The committee of inquiry was set up last March to make these inquiries. The committee now says that it expects to have the additional information it requires to complete its inquiry “early in the “new year”. It is typical of the confusion of the whole business that this estimate is far removed from one given by Mr J. J. Busch, general manager of the National Airways Corporation, in evidence to the committee a few months ago. Mr Busch then said that it was unlikely that a firm decision about the aircraft it was thought might be the most suitable could be reached before 1960. Final conclusions must await the committee’s complete re-

port. The interim report does nothing to relieve first misgivings when the Government gave up its original decision, reached after what Mr Holyoake said was a thorough investigation by a Cabinet coipmittee, supplemented by technical surveys. It remains true that an adequate, modern service which will carry cars, trucks, heavy vehicles and machinery quickly between the two islands is a vital link in the nation’s transport system. Unless adequate replacement is arranged, the link will be broken when the cost of refitting the Tamahine becomes prohibitive. This, at the latest, will be in 1962. Little enough time is left to have a ship built. It is obviously impossible to wait until 1960 to make a firm decision about aircraft. Some sympathy must be felt with the Government, which was offered the considerable attraction that someone other than the State would find the capital if an air service was adopted. But the committee’s report suggests that little has been gained by the delay since the arrangement with the Union Company was announced in July, 1956. The complete report will be awaited with some eagerness, because it is time a firm Government decision was made.