N.Z. TRANSPORT

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXII, Issue 147, 7 June 1932, Page 6

N.Z. TRANSPORT

APPEAL BOARD POLICY CHECKING WASTEFUL COMPETITION. CASE FOR RAILWAY DEPARTMENT. By Telegraph—Press Association. Christchurch, June 7. The policy guiding the decisions of the Transport Appeal Board was outlined by Mr. Justice Frazer yesterday when he defined the board's view of what constitutes public interest in relation to transport. A word or two had been said in regard to “a monopoly for the Railway Department” and he said that the object of the Act was not so much to set up a monopoly in favour either of the Railway Department or a rival motor service but it was intended to cheek wasteful and uneconomic competition between different forms of transport over the same route. In arriving at the conclusion as to what was desirable in the public interest they had to consider tho question of wasteful competition. If a more or less luxury service competed with the railway service to such an extent ns to prejudice the finances of that service then it was undoubtedly wasteful. If the Railway Department could give a convenient, fast and efficient service which would supply the needs of the people then, obviously, anything that cut into that service was wasteful and, in the long run, the public had to pay.