MOTOR SERVICES

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 103, 3 May 1937, Page 6

MOTOR SERVICES

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1 NATIONAL PARTY'S " CRITICISM

.The- Government's, decision to. purchase long-distance, transport, systems which operate beyond the 30 miles on : any : railway .route is described by the National Party executive in a statement to the. Press as "ruthless ■■ .conflscation^'that^cannot be def|ri;4ed on: any. •proper'ground?'; ',:: -■ V "■I.'SZ. ' /.The. statement read; as follows:—. .■ -'.. 'The: Minister has: made-one:: of the most:..disturbing, pronouncements', "yet given .out by :any- Socialist. "Minister. Large numbers oi private ■ transport businesses are being run by individuals and ...by private, companies.jand ...hundreds : of. families are '■ subsisting1' : on the profit of their enterprises.- • ■■?:■. - .', "In many y. cases transport business has'ibeen fairly, and properly conducted :by generations of the same family. Hundreds ;ot adults and children.;.are relying on .'these individual businesses to provide. money to buy them ( food and :clothing." : • ;: " ; .'* . . : "This confiscation ma'y.';be,in; keeping with the .Socialists' political promises.' Let us: assume, that it: is,;,but no : one ever dreamt, that such, ruthless destruction -of i business 'would eve? eventuate. '•'"■'■ ■'■'■:■■ ■:■:.. ■ ■;: ' ;■'•■■■. .':■■':. 1 "The Minister says the : Government will pay the owners compensation. Will they compensate -the men, old and.-young,' who will necessarily be thrown out of work? If they do and ' give them a lump sum of money, wliat use will that be? ■■ How- can any sum of money; be compensation unless' it is so large that,on investment it will return an. income equivalent to wages? ' "Men are: about to be thrown out of work. Businesses are to .be forcibly taken over. New avenues of employment are to be sought by many who have spent their adult lives in trans- •. port work and perhaps at a time when I work will be" hard to obtain. Every day I warnings are uttered, from abroad as 1 well as in New Zealand, that the peak [ prices of wool cannot .be maintained j and when our national income falls i men and women now living in a ;tem- : porary phase of plenty will be forced . once more to endure the agony of un- • employment, and. .it will' be a depression created, by our own gross flly. . : COMPETITION TO GO. : "The . addition to the ranks of the ' Civil Service which '. will result from : the transport'confiscation,, simply adds a further burden to the already heavily ' capitalised. Department. With the j transport a State monopoly, all com- \- petition will, of .course, go. Competition is as necessary to good and efficient'business as oil is to machinery. "The State transport will inevitably : become, less efficient,., heavily . over- ' staffed, and ultimately largely indifferent to the demands and needs of business. The public-is about to experiI ence the effect of. socialisation at "a peculiarly, sensitive, point. .The rail- ! ways are to ■■ be"-loaded, with' another i three or four millions of capital if pri- • vate transport businesses are to be ' compensated at a fair price and.the railways are.already capitalised to the . colossal sum of £54,500,000. ; ■ "AVithout' competition: the freight !' rates.will almost certainly soar, and our country cousins will find it much : more expensive to shift their produce '. apart from the fact that they will haye ; ;to contribute-towards the cost'of comi pensating those . unfortunate .persons ' about to be deprived of. their liveli- :. hood. ■ "With the export and marketing of •■ dur primary produce in the hands of : civil servants, with the transport system in the same condition, the i farmer will soon be able, to regard himself as-nothing else but a servant lof a State which undertakes to pay ; him such a price for his butter, cheese, ' and other produce as some high- . placed, well-paid civil servant deems adequate. "The Socialists are : apparently uni able to realise that the people of. New 1 Zealand have not lost their character- ; ; istic love of individualism, their right ; to rise and fall in open competition, '■ their hatred for oppressive officialdom, and the time will not be Jong delayed when those characteristic's will be as- . serted so that the men and women of , New Zealand may remain free and not . the mere tools of an officious Social- • ism." ".-..-'