SUPREME AUTHORITY

Manawatu Standard, Volume LII, Issue 268, 12 October 1932, Page 6

SUPREME AUTHORITY

for control of transport,

MEMBER URGES CO-ORDINATION.

fßv Telegraph—Special to Standard.) (By lelegr^ ELL^GT0 N, Oct. 11. The establishment of one supreme FxDenditure Commission that the Transport Department in New Zealand should be Practically abolished. , “The Commission, in its report, said Mr Ansell, “reterred to the ditfL Sows that-the lYansport Department is not a dram on the Consolidatea Fund it suggests that it jhould be nlaced under the wing of tlie public Works Department—;a department whicli! by Ae way, it has criticised m Mr S W. ei A. y Veitch : Brought under f °Mr Ansell: Perhaps under foot and “tirS.iS&k jumbo report?” asked Mr F. Langstqne. “The finding of the Commission with respect to transport,” Mr Ansell continued, “is quite out of line with the progressive ideas and organisation that has taken place throughout the world on 'the transport question, yet the Commission says there is no justification for the department here. It is absurd for the Commission to suggest that the department should be practically annihilated.” - , „ , Pointing out that New Zealand \\as over supplied with transport facilities, Mr Ansell declared that the situation demanded that co-ordination should be undertaken to eliminate wasteful duplication. and be urged that the Government should create one transport administrative authority • which would govern .the whole of the country s transportation operations. The Railway Board, the Transport Department, the Public’Works Department and the Marine Department were all concerned with transport, but not one was coordinated. In his view, attempts to induce voluntary co-ordination had failed and the future would show that there must be compulsory co-ordination. For want of a better name, he suggested that the new body should be known as the Transport Council and should consis’t of members qualified by knowledge and experience. To the council must be deferred all matters relative to rail, road, sea and aerial transport. Giving an illustration of some of tlie present difficulties, Mr Ansell referred to the non-paying branch railway lines and the position the Railway Board found itself in, and contended that it would be better for an independent body to stipulate that the railways should carry a certain class of produce which must not be transported Dy road —a responsibility which could hardly be placed on the Railway Board. Furthermore, there were far too many small harbours in New Zealand, and that question could be gone into by the supreme authority set up along the line indicated.

“If we are to work our transport facilities in the public interest by neither bolstering up obsolete methods nor stifling modern methods,” said Mr Ansell, “it can be undertaken by the organisation I have suggested. Each form of transport should be •placed in its legitimate sphere.”