SCHOOL BUSES

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXI, 23 June 1937, Page 6

SCHOOL BUSES

EFFICIENCY ENSURED PROVISIONS FOR INSPECTION UNDER ACT ASSURANCE BY MINISTER (By Telegraph - Press Association] CHRISTCHURCH, This Day. An assurance that everything possible was being done by the Minister of Education in co-operation with the Transport Department to ensure that buses used for the conveyance of children to schools were 100 per cent, efficient, was given by the Minister of Transport, the Hon. R. Semple, this morning. The Minister concurred fully with the state ments made at a recent meeting of the Canterbury School Committees Association by Mr T. H. Langford. Transport Licensing Authority for No. 3 District, regarding the appalling condition of many of the school buses. The trouble was due to the fact that the previous Government exempted buses carrying children to schools from the r revision:' for inspection under the Transport Licensing Act, but an amendment to the Act passed last year brought these vehicles within its scope. “It was a criminal and cruel thing to exempt buses carrying children from the provisions of the law,” said Mr Semple, “and I dealt with it as soon as it was possible for me to do so. The condition of the buses has been reveal • ed as a result of the inspections carried out since last December, and it is only natural to suppose that when they were exempted from inspection that the state of affairs existed.’ Mr Semple said he had no doubt that when Mr Langford made public the state of affairs that existed mothers in particular were terrified for the safety of their children, but he wanted to give them an assurance that they need have no fears in future.