STATE PURCHASES.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 123, 23 April 1938, Page 11

STATE PURCHASES.

HOAD TRANSPORT SERVICES. DISSATISFACTION IN NORTH. Per Press Association. AUCKLAND, April 22. Control of road freight'services between Auckland and the Waikato is to be assumed by the Railway Department. Other services in the Auckland district are also to be taken over, but in no case has a price been announced. For the time being, at least, the present timetable will be maintained. The department will take over Felton Waikato Transport,' Ltd., from next Saturday, and will operate the service from the following Monday. Members of the company’s staff are being retained in employment. McGlymont’s Transport, Ltd., will be taken over later and operated from May 9. Other companies over which the department is to assume control are Hicks’s Transport, to the Waikato; Salter’s Transport, to Matamata; Mr Parson’s service to Te Awamutu Hjorth’s Transport, to Cambridge, Tirau and Putaruru ; M. J. Hilder and Sons, to Otorohaiiga; Mr Carter’s service to Otoroha.nga; Northern Transport, Ltd., to Whangarei. _ , General dissatisfaction is evident among operators concerning the prices paid for the services, which were fixed by a Government commission. It is stated that Government negotiations with the passenger operators were on an entirely different basis and that the freight operators have been made the Cinderellas of the entire transport industry. Although many freight operators have been making a much larger profit than numerous passenger services, it is claimed that the former have in comparison been offered a mere pittance as goodwill for their businesses. “The alternative to accepting the price offered by the Government nas to apply for a renewal of the license to the licensing authority,” an operator said. “The licensing authorities were set up by the Government, and have already given decisions supporting the Government’s single-ownership policy. Therefore, any decision that ijiev may give is surely pre-determmed. There is an appeal from the authority’s decision, but that is to the Minister of Transport, who is responsible to the Government for carrying out the single-ownership policy.”