SCHOOL BUSES

Evening Star, Issue 22682, 23 June 1937, Page 8

SCHOOL BUSES

WHERE THE TROUBLE WAS MR SEMPLE'S ASSURANCE PARENTS NEED HAVE NO FEARS [Peu United Peess Association.] CHRISTCHURCH, Juno 23. An assurance that everything possible was hemp done by the Minister of Education, m co-operation with the Transport Department, to ensure that buses used for the conveyance of children to schools were 100 per cent, efficient was given by the Minister of Transport (Hon. R. “Semple) this morning. The Minister concurred fully with the statements made at a recent meeting of the Canterbury School Committees’ Association by Mr T. H. Langford, transport licensing authority for No. 3 district, regarding the appalling condition of many of the school buses. The trouble was due to the fact that the previous Government had exempted buses carrying children to schools from the provisions for inspection under the Transport Licensing Act, but an amendment to the Act passed last year brought these vehicles within its scope. “ It was a criminal and cruel thing to exempt buses carrying children from the provisions of the law,” said Mr Semple, “ and I dealt with it as soon as it was possible for me to do so. The condition of the buses has been revealed as the result of inspections carried out since last December, and it was only natural to suppose when they were exempted from inspection that this state of affairs existed.” Mr Semple said he had no doubt when Mr Langford made public the state of affairs that existed mothers in particular were terrified for the safety of ‘their children, but he wanted to give them his assurance that they need have no fears in future.