TRANSPORT CONTROL.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3380, 27 June 1927, Page 8

TRANSPORT CONTROL.

A RAILWAY VIEW

Control of transport receives editorial notice in the current issue of the “Railway Magazine,” which explains that, with the passing of the Railways Amendment Act, of 1925, the New Zealand railways gained authority to undertake road transport—a necessary extension of carrying authority if the railways were to function in the most economical manner.

“Wasteful competition was prevented in another sphere by the Motor-om-nibus Traffic Act of last session, designed to afford protection to the various municipal tramways,” continues the article. “Par greater than the menace to the trams, however, is the menace to the railways which motor competition has produced, and the position cannot be considered as adequately met merely by permitting the railways to run their own motors. There is, definitely, one way which is best suited to supply the requirements of each loealitf and route. To test out the relative merits of railway and motor by close investigation of all the factors that go to the making of transport conditions is a matter deserving of close attention and impartial, scientific inquiry There would be justification for duplicating railway services by road ones if the growth of business rendered the railways inadequate to cope with the requirements of modern transport. But it is wellknown that our railways are not working at a capacity anywhere nearly approaching their maximum, that they could handle traffic more economically if they had more of it, and that considerable expense had been entailed in seeking and holding traffic which, but for competition, would have come to, and remained with, the rail —unasked

“During the last financial year, a year in which there was certainly no marked expansion in the gross amount of traffic to be handled in the Dominion, there was an increase of 30 per cent, in the number of motor-trucks, etc, registered. The facilities for transport in the previous year were more than adequate for the country’s needs. It is, therefore, self-evident that this heavy increase in transport capacity was not only without warrant, but, by diverting the flow of men and money from its natural direction—that of primary production—into superfluous auxiliary transportation, has actually been a heavy drag on the country’s economic recovery. Not all things are amenable to control; but among great public utilities within our own Dominion none is more easily dealt with—once the economic facts are known —and none is more deserving of protective action than transport.”