TRANSPORT SERVICES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20011, 30 July 1928, Page 11

TRANSPORT SERVICES.

COMMISSION'S FINDINGS. THE TRAMWAY POLICY. ••admirable AND EFFICIENT." LACK OF MUNICIPAL UNITY. [BY TELEGRAPH. —SPECIAL REPORTER.] WELLINGTON, Saturday Several matters connected with the Auckland transport services, in addition to those already mentioned, arc referred to in the report of the Transport Commission, which was presented to Parliament yesterday. The present and future requirements of the oitv and suburbs and the history of the present system as a municipal undertaking are reviewed by the commissioners, and it is remarked that the period covered by the inquiry—from July 1, 1919, to March 31, 1928 —may conveniently be divided into two parts —the time before and after the advent of serious bus competition. Speaking of tho second period, beginning from the latter half of 1924, the report gavs: "The first distinguishing feature of this period is that the tramway administration had completely justified itself. The evidence satisfies us that the difficulties that we have outlined in the first, part of this history were tackled in a businesslike manner and had been generally overcome. We have inspected the system, its staff arrangements, its mechanical equipment and workshops, its business methods and organisation, and we have taken every opportunity of watching and testing its efficiency in actual working. "We have also heard all evidence submitted by all parties, and the result is to satisfy us that both the Tramways Committee that fixes and controls the policy and the manager and staff that carries out that policy are to be complimented on the position of an admirable and efficient system. "We wish, however, to supplement this by reference to collateral sources, particularly those that throw light on the state of things at about the end of 1924. First, we have examined the records of a witness tiiat we think extremely valuable, because we have confidence in it as being independent, honest and spontaneous. We refer to articles that have appeared in the New Zealand Herald. Quotations are given from the articles that appeared in the Herald in March, November and December, 1923. Council and Suburban Bodies. The feeling existing between the local bodies and the City Council is dealt with trenchantiy by the commission. After quoting Mr. Justice Blair's observations on the subject in the report of the Water Commission, the Transport Commission says: "If the terms 'transport facilities,' and transport board* are substituted for 'water' and 'water board,' the extract describes accurately the position as it reveals itself to us. Iho eyes ar-2 still shut and the arguments for an ad hocunity are still based on difficulties that are born of an alliance of disunity and suspicion. "These views find no acceptance on the part o: exponents of tlio present scheme of segregated municipal control. Instead, they proclaim the advantages of then municipal divisions with fervour. It is almost common ground that it was the presence of these numerous bodies that gave rise to the necessity of the formation of the power board to control and operate a public utility common to the whole area. " Suspicion and Hostility." " The present transport difficulties arc Bppioached and stated, not as one transport problem based on the requirements of a homogeneous transport area, but as a dispute between the Auckland City Council and the outside bodies. The matter has come before us largely in the form of a dispute between those parties and, as a separate part of this whole answer will show, it has taken the form of the sories of indictments to be answered by the City Council. The atmosphere in which these disputes have developed and proceeded has, at some points and places, and as to some parties, been one of suspicion and hostility. "This spirit, in our considered opinion, is the most important and at the same time the most potent factor in the present position. It entered largely into the conduct of the hearing before us, and at times lerl witness and counsel to place what we believed to be an unnecessary importance and emphasis on unworthy and irrelevant issues For the same reason the case for the local bodies, as presented to us, showed strongly a tendency to treat developments and matters that are nationwide or world-wide as if they were peculiar to Auckland. I'or example, the Motor Omnibus Traffic Act, 1926, with its principle of the penal fare of 2d. " Sad Spirit of Disunity." "The recognition of the expediency of giving a measure of traffic monopoly and the provision whereby local bodies ar# made tho licensing authorities were all treated as sinistei devices of the Auckland City Council, sanctioned by a com plaisant Legislature to enable that council to crush its motor-bus rivals. It. is, on the contrary, clear that in fact these provisions were enacted by (he Legislature after a study of methods followed throughout the Empire and elsewhere to meet conditions similar to those that Auckland had experienced. If Auckland's experience in these matters has been more troublesome to adjust and the difficulties harder to remove, we are satisfied that these peculiarities are attributable, as to most of them at least, to the division of municipal control within the metropolis, and to the sad spirit oj disunity r>f which that division is the outward sign."