HIGHER FERRY CHARGES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18566, 26 November 1923, Page 11

HIGHER FERRY CHARGES

NORTH SHORE OBJECTIONS.

DEPUTATION TO MINISTER

CONSIDERATION PROMISED.

i The increased ferry charges proposed by the Auckland Harbour Board were the subject of a deputation of the Mayors of the four North Shore boroughs to the Minister for Marine, the iHon. G. J. Anderson, on Saturday. Mr. T. Lfinont (Devonport) and Mr. A, M. Gould (Takapuna) laid before him,their grounds of complaint. The managing director of the Devonport Steam Ferry Company, the Hon, E. W. Alison, M.L.C., introduced the deputation, and stated that the charges had been doubled on goods and on the vessels plying to the Auckland wharves and to the wharves across the harbour. The increased charges, as proposed by the board, were deemed to be unreasonable. It had been stated that the increase had been proposed because of the objection lodged against the waterfront railway. Also he believed the Harbour Board submitted that the cost of maintaining the wharves warranted the increases. Mr. Lamont reminded the Minister that the present scale of charges was fixed as the result of a Royal Commission in 1914. He said he could show that the increases were not justified. \ Mr. Gould said the ferries existed as a public utility, and the proposed increased charges must affect the whole passenger traffic. He suggested that the Minister should hold the proposed charge inoperative for the present, and he asked lor an opportunity to present their case before a Royal Commission. Mr. Anderson: Personally I don't like commissions. Mr. Gould said he thought a commission was their only hope. _ The charges bore their own condemnation.

Mr. Anderson said that ho and the secretary of the Marine Department, Mr. G. C. Godfrey, would go into the matter. Mr. Godfrey suggested that the Marine Boroughs Association should put its case into writing, and forward it to the Minister, and that the Harbour Board should do the same. The question of a commission could then be decided. Mr. Anderson said he did not think the Harbour Board would make the charges if it did not deem them reasonable. Mr. Alison said the North Shore Mayors maintained that the increases were not at all reasonable. xiie Harbour Board was asking the Devonport Steam Ferry Company to pay an amount equal to that paid by all other shipping, coastal intercolonial and oversea, that entered Auckland. The Minister told the deputation ho would consider their objections and give notification of what, would be dono.