TRANSPORT CONTROL

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 34, 3 November 1928, Page 29

TRANSPORT CONTROL

♦* AUCKLAND ENDORSES BOARD PLAN OVERWHELMING MAJORITIES Emphatic endorsement of the transport board proposal was given by ratepayers at the polls held in the city and suburbs yesterday (states Thursday’s Auckland ‘‘Herald”). The aggregate t voting was 7890 in favour, and 1371 against, or a favourable radio of nearly six to one. Seldom has any proposition of local importance met with greater support. At every polling booth in the city area, and in every suburb in the proposed transport district, the majority of the ratepayers .were of one mind. Although in the city only 17 per cent, of the 20,397 enrolled ratepayers voted —and the proportion in the suburbs was much the same—the polling is regarded as a fair expression of public thought on transport control. It can' safely be assumed that most ratepayers opposed to the city parting with its transport undertaking, registered their ■votes, and the conjecture can be made equal confidence that large numbers of those favouring changed control did not record their view. There were 34 booths in the city, and nowhere was the proposal seriously challenged. In the aggregate, city ratepayers carried the proposal by just over six to one. The suburban voting was remarkably akin to that in the city, only two i patepayers in every 11 desiring no change. Of the 737 adverse votes, 248, or just over one-third, were polled in Onehunga. The decision in city and suburbs gives' force to the Auckland Transport Board Act, passed towards the close of the last session of ' Parliament. The Act ■will come into operation with the gazetting of the result of both polls. The next step will be the setting up of _ a transport board, to which the city will hand over as a going concern its tramway and motor-omnibus undertaking, the time of taking over being retrospective to April 1 last, and the city being left ■with neither profit nor loss on its tramways department. The new board will have vested in it all tramway rights ■within the district, and, with the exception of existing omnibus services, which will retain their present status, the board will have exclusive control of all ■omnibus services running wholly or partly within the district. The board will comprise ten members, tot df whom will normally be elected by the electors of the city and four by the electors of the other districts. The first board, however, will be nominated by the loci bodies within the districtsix by the Auckland City Council and four by other local bodies. This board

» ■ will hold office until May, 1931, except that any members may be removed and others appointed by the respective local bodies next May. The board will elect its oavu chairman, who will , hold office for two years.