The Gisborne Times THURSDAY, APRIL. 11, 1935. A WHOLESOME DECISION

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXXII, Issue 12526, 11 April 1935, Page 4

The Gisborne Times THURSDAY, APRIL. 11, 1935. A WHOLESOME DECISION

The decision of the Transport Coordination. Board to reverse a large number of refusals by the No. 2 District Licensing- Authority to grant goods transport licenses in the Auckland district will lie welcomed by afi who desire to see fair play meted out on all sides. It will be agreed) that the main aitn of the hinv was to ensure « square Oral for • all forms of road transport. In overriding tho decisions to which reference is being madq. the Transport Boar c i rightly points out- that the Licensing Authority did wrong' in maintaining that the acid test in respect of any application must he whether a service was necessary. The fact that a railway might run parallel to a road through one or more districts will not now he regarded as proof that the read service might be dispensed with. In this connection, the Board points out that a. railway service might possibly prove very inconvenient.. It will be commended, therefore, for applying a very libera', interpretation to the. words of the statute—"lne'cessary and! desirable.” By way of illustrating its contention the Board suggests that a road service which has been profitably conducted over a lengthy period must be hold to have earned the right- t-o a renewal of its license. When all is said' and done, the public is, of course, entitled to lie studied. No service would be accorded liberal Patronage. if if were not found to be widely required. The Board has now set at. rest fears that the Endways Department was entitled to special protection at the hands of the Transport licensing authorities and it has done so in these unequivocal words: '‘No form of transport can claim to have a vested right that will .stand in the way of progress towards <1 more economic and convenient form.’ If the Rnihvavs Department, is to win hack the bulk of its lost business it will, of course, require to go about the matter in a business-like wav. By the use of heavy trains .that are costly to run and the adop tion of services that arc im-onveriient it cannot hope again to attract patrons whose requirements are being studied by road original decisions bad been permitted) to stand, it would, unquestionably, have amounted to a grave injustice. The Government no doubt was anxious, when it framed the legislation in question. to see all uneconomic transport services eliminated. Assuredly, it never intended that tho new laxv should be administered as harshly, as would have been the case if the decisions which have now been reversed had been allowed to stand. In this eohneetion, if may bo recalled that the northern Licensing Authority rejected as many as 26 out, of the 29 applications for road licenses which came before it some months ago. The Transport Board’s judgment on the 1 appeals will have a verv wholesome effect in that it will allay all suspicion that the Transport law was'enacted mainly to help the Rail wavs Department out of difficulties which have arisen from competition.