Motor Transport Services

Manawatu Times, Volume 61, Issue 74, 28 March 1936, Page 5

Motor Transport Services

ONE OR TWO TO BE TAKEN OVER BY RAILWAYS Per Press Association. WELLINGTON, Last Night. One or two of the major motor transport services in New Zealand may be purchased soon by the Stale so that they may be run by the Railways Department. Tho Minister of Railways (lion. D. G. Sullivan) said to-day that ho had given instructions for negotiations to lie opened for the purchase by the Government of one or two major transport lines which, it win considered, should be lun by the Railways Department because of the interests held by the department in the particular areas they serve. It was emphasised by Mr. Sullivan, however, that thcro was no intention to embark on a general policy of acquiring such services. “There is going to be closer co-ordiu-alion of transport services in tho future than in the past,” said the Minister, “and the Prime Minister has made it clear at the same time that everyone is going to have a fair deal. The general policy we intend lo follow is to bo one of co-ordmation. We intend to fit one service in with another.

“There is to be uu big policy of Government purchases of these services, but in one or two cases of great importance, when there are special circumstances, we are moving in the direction of acquiring them. We are to be guided by the particular circumstances as they affect these services and our own, and not ill the principle of acquiring them everywhere.” The Minister explained that, in the two cases mentioned, the services were extension services and not in direct competition with railway routes.