TRANSPORT INDUSTRY

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 68, 13 December 1939, Page 6

TRANSPORT INDUSTRY

Not A State-Protected Monopoly DUTIES OF AN AUTHORITY Dominion Special Service. "WANGANUI, December 12. “We are here not to protect the carrier but in tlie interests of the community as a whole.” said the No. 2 Transport Licensing Authority. Mr. P. Skoglund, at a sitting of tlie authority yesterday when combating a suggestion that the transport industry was a protected monopoly. Mr. K. Armstrong, who appeared tor certain stock firms, tlie Sheepowners Federation, the Farmers’ Union, and similar organizations, referred to the transport industry as a State-protected industry. Saying that that was a wrong idea, Mr. Skoglund said that what tlie licensing authority had to do was to put the transport industry on a proper footing. It had to find out what it cost the operator to operate his vehicle, what return he could get on his capital, and what his revenue was, so that a proper basis on which to charge the user could be arrived at. The authority felt that by better cooperation it. would be able to reduce the charge to the user. It was his duty, said Mr. Skoglund, to maintain a fair balance as between operator and user, and he hoped he would hear no more about the industry being a State monopoly, a State-protected industry. or a State-protected gionopoly.