BIAS FOR RAIL

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIII, Issue 210, 18 August 1933, Page 8

BIAS FOR RAIL

MOTOR UNION PRESIDENT'S ALLEGATIONS. SPEED-LIMITS CRITICISED. AUCKLAND, Aug. 17. Allegations that the Transport Department was biased in favour of tho Railway Department, and criticism of the 40 miles an hour speed limit on certain roads were made by Mr W. A. O’Callaghan, president of tho North Island Motor Union, at tho opening of the annual conference at Auckland today. “When this department was established one section of motorists regarded it as ‘just another department’ in our Gilbert and Sullivan departmental system,” Mr. O’Callaghan said. “Others w'erc inclined to suspect that one of the primary objects of the new department would bo to bolster up the railways at the expense of all road users, and recent events lead me to the conclusion that this suspicion was not at all unjustified. The fact remains that the Transport Department has placed the commercial road user to a very heavy expense in protecting what used to be regarded as a constitutional right to run our own business in our own way provided that it, by its nature, came within the four corners of the law. It seems clear, however, that while the operations of the Transport Department may not have been without compensations to counsel engaged to protect as far as possible the rights of commercial road users, its principal achievement to date is to advantage the Railway Department at tho expense of all road users.” Speaking of the 40 miles an hour speed limit on certain roads, Mr O’Callaghan said: “It is fitting that 1 should refer to this question immediately after commenting on the activities of the Transport Department because the imposition of this speed limit, as far as we are able to ascertain, originated with the Transport Department. We have stated that the local authorities did not ask for it, tho police did not ask for it, and the Main Highways did not ask for it,' and wo certainly did not ask for it, and our assertions have not been contradicted. Speed limits were abolished in England last year, but our Transport Department is now attempting to ‘modernise’ New Zealand road transport by adopting speed limits regarded in England as being antiquated. Strenuous opposition to this 40 miles an hour speed limit was offered by this union and tho South Island Motor Union with the result that .it is not to be applied to surfaced roads, but it does apply to all metalled roads excepting those specially exempted. “The principal argument advanced by the advocates of the speed limit was that if the average speeds in the country were reduced the cost of maintenance of roads would automatically be reduced. The advocates of this idea are content to close their eyes to the obvious fact that to bring about a saving of this kind 100 per cent, enforcement of the law would be ‘necessary. As this is out of the question our Legislature has been induced to add just one more useless regulation to the agglomeration of ill-considered matter that passes for legislation in e his country.”