TAKAPUNA BUS DISPUTE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19558, 10 February 1927, Page 12

TAKAPUNA BUS DISPUTE.

SEPARATE AEEA ABOLISHED

GOVERNMENT'S DECISION.

INCLUSION IN CITY DISTRICT.

OTHER PROPOSALS DISMISSED

rEY TELEGRAPH. —OWN CORRESPONDENT.] WELLINGTON, Wednesday. The Acting-Prime Minister, Hon. W. Downie Stewart, announces that an Order-in-Council has been made, and will be published in this week's Gazette, abolishing the Borough of Takapuna as a licensing district under the Motor Omnibus Traffic Act, 1926, and incorporating it in the No. I licensing district, which now includes the other North Shore boroughs and the Waitemata County. In announcing this decision the ActingPrime Minister made the following statement"The recent decision of the Supreme Court, by which the Takapuna Borough Council was disqualified from acting as the licensing authority for the No. 2 licensing district, comprising the Borough of Takapuna, has made it necessary for the Government to take action tinder section 3 of the Motor Omnibus Traffic Act, which confers the power to abolish any district and to alter the boundaries of any district, or to constitute a new district.

Two Suggestions Considered. "Two proposals have been put forward. The first is that the Takapuna Borough should be included in the No. 1 licensing district, which includes the City of Auckland (which is the licensing authority), and the Boroughs of Devonport, Birkenhead and Northcote, and the Waitemata County. The other proposal is that the three boroughs above-mentioned and the Waitemata County should be taken out of the No. 1 licensing district and should, together with the Takapuna Borough, constitute a new licensing district. After careful consideration of all the arguments which the Government invited from the

various parties interested, it has been „ decided to adopt the first proposal and to include the Takapuna Borough in the No. 1 licensing district. "The reasons for this decision are as follow: (1) The law gave to the Takapuna Borough the right .to be constituted as a separate district, and it fol« lows, therefore, that the wishes at this borough, as expressed in the resolution of its council, viz., that it should bo in* eluded in the No. 1 district, should have considerable weight. Judging by a poll of electors taken since the passing of the Act, there is a substantial majority of the electors of Takapu&a in favour of the actions of the Borough Council in regard to its - transport system. Further, the absorption of the Takapuna Borough in the No. 1 district was the solution of the difficulty suggested by the Supreme Court when giving its decision in the reeent case. Devonport Council Disqualified. *' (2) To have taken the North Shore area out of the No. 1 licensing district bh4 combined It with Takapuna in a new district would have meant 1 ignoring the resolution of the Takapuna Borough Council and would have involved, under the existing law, the constitution of one of the - local bodies in the new area as the licensing authority. The advocates of this course, suggested that the Devonport Borough Council should be the licensing authority for this new district, hut in view of the evidence given before the Parliamentary Committee and tho active campaign which has been going on in connection with this matter, it seemed to the Government that the objections which were made against the Takapuna Borough Council as the licensing autb" ority would apply equally if the Devonport Borough Council were wade the authority. "Therefore the best course seemed to ba to put the Takapuna Borough in the same licensing authority as the other North Shove boroughs, and to have as ttiq .. licensing authority the Auckland City Council, a body which is sufficiently far removed to have no local interest in the dispute, but is sufficiently near to have a knowledge of tho questions involved, and could be relied on to act fairly and equitably in giving its decision, . from which there is an appeal by either party. "It should be emphasised thjit there is no provision in the existing law by which, in the event of the North Shore districts being constituted a separate licensing district, a licensing authority I could be composed of representatives from each district. The Government can deal only with the law as it stands, but any proposal to make > new district with a composite' licensing authority can be carried into effect by .'an Act of Parliament."