TAXI INDUSTRY INQUIRY

Evening Star, Issue 22475, 21 October 1936, Page 8

TAXI INDUSTRY INQUIRY

FULL EVIDENCE DETAINED MINISTER PLEASED WITH GO-OPERATION GIVEN - [Pan United Press Association.] WELLINGTON, October 20. The investigation which the committee set up by the Government has made regarding the taxi cab and carrying businesses in New Zealand has resulted in full evidence being tendered on all aspects of the question from local body representatives. State departments, and the operators and employees engaged in the industries, stated the Minister of Transport (Mr Semple) to-day. According to the chairman (Mr P. M. Butler), the committee has been particularly pleased with the evidence submitted, and the indications were that all concerned realised the necessity for an overhaul and reformation of the services, and were co-operating with the committee in an effort to probe every aspect affecting the services, with the object of arriving at a solution of the many problems associated with them. The Minister said that in addition to the public hearings of evidence relative to matters contained in the order of reference of the committee, questionnaires had been drawn up for submission to operators and employees. These had been distributed and were being returned in a very complete manner. It was emphasised that the questionnaires were not drawn up as a test of any particular unit or organisation, but that the information contained in them would bo analysed to give an indication of the national importance and aspects of the services. Mr Semple thanked those who-had already sent in returns, which were very helpful to the committee.

Tho Minister said he was pleased to note from Press references that during the committee’s sojourn in the South Island it had suggested meetings of interested parties, which up to then had "been at variance with each other. Such meetings had been held at Christchurch, Dunedin, and Invercargill. At these meetings tentative arrangements had been made to meet the immediate pressing problems in those centres, and in each case unanimous decisions had been arrived at dealing with these immediate problems until the committee’s report was completed. These conferences had dome much good, and had resulted in a minimum wage being adopted in each centre where the commission system had been causing chaos. “The committee is proceeding as quickly as it possibly can with its investigations,” the ‘ Minister added, “ anij it hopes to complete its report at an early date.”