NEW TRANSPORT BILL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20947, 10 August 1931, Page 11

NEW TRANSPORT BILL.

"INTERESTS OF THE PUBLIC.'' STATEMENT BY MINISTER. NOT BOLSTERING UP RAILWAYS. [BY TELEGRAPH.—PRESS ASSOCIATION.] "WELLINGTON, Saturday. The Minister of Transport, the Hon. W. A. Veitch, in an interview to-day, stated that so far as tlie general application of the Transport Licensing Bill is concerned with the existing services no justification exists for the assertion that the measure is designed to bolster up the railways. . It is designed to protect the public and to see that both publicly and privately-owned transport is utilised to provide the necessary and desirable service to the people. One of the clauses of the bill, said Mr. Veitch, provides that a passenger service licence shall not be refused in any case where the applicant was carrying on the service on April 1, 1931, provided that it is not in competition with a service licensed under the Motor Omnibus Traffic Act. That clause, however, does not provide that services commenced after April 1, 1951, shall be refused a licence. The licensing authorities in all such cases must take into account the matters contained in another clause which, in short, make it necessary for an applicant to show that his service is necessary or desirable in the public interest. If the licensing authority decides that the service is not necessary or desirable in the public interest it shall refuse to grant the licence, in which case the applicant would have the right of appeal to the statutory Appeal Board constituted under the bill and the decision of the board would be final. If the Appeal Board were to allow an appeal it would then be necessary for the licensing authority to grant a licence. It might be said that, well-established services were, pjima facie, necessary or desirable in the public interest, otherwise they would not have obtained continued public patronage. It was well known that under the existing conditions an enormous amount of unnecessary vehicle mileage wan being run, involving high road maintenance costs and destructive rate-cutting, and adding generally to the unit cost of the Dominion's transport. The Minister added that ecenomic reductions were not possible nnder the present conditions. Owing to the absence of the legislative proposals contained in the bill road operators themselves were quite unable to co ordinate since others promptly put on services to replace any taken off by present owners for the purpose of reducing services to something more akin to reasonable requirements.