TRANSPORT COMPETITION

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21561, 4 August 1933, Page 11

TRANSPORT COMPETITION

CASE FOR REGULATION THE ECONOMIC ASPECTS */ ' " s [bt telegraph—OWN correspondent} WELLINGTON, Thursday Economic aspects of State regulation of transport were touched upon by the Commissioner of Transport, Mr. J. S. Hunter, in an address delivered to the Victoria University College Commerce Society this evening. He dealt particularly with competition against the railways by road traffic ■; The case for the regulation of transport rested fundamentally on the fact that transport belonged to that group of industries known as public service monopolies, Mr. Hunter said. Motor transport did not perhaps conform to the conditions determining a pubhe service monopoly to quite the same extent as the railways and tramways difl, but obviously when competition dc« veloped between public motor services and other services the question arose whether the control exercised over themi was to be relaxed, similar control extended over road services, or whetheir some midcourse should be adopted. "In New Zealand, where the railway* are State-owned and where the investment of public money represents some £60,000,000, it would .undoubtedly produce chaos in our industry and trade if unregulated competition heldlsway," said Mr. Hunter. "Could we afford to see the deficit on our railways increase from £1,500,000' and our road bill to greater than the £8,000,000 it is-to-day? We could not afford it. We have no alternative but in the national interest to extend regulation to motor transport. "The chief disadvantage of State regulation of transport is that any form of regulation must retard progress. There is always a tendency to maintain the status quo against new advances. The motor interests claim that regulation means bolstering up the railways. This argument is quite sound, but it misses the point. The question is not whether road or rail services, for instance, shall prevail, but what arrangements yield the maximum benefits to the public. If it were in the public interest to scrap the railways in favour of road transport the railways interest® would no doubt raise the cry of bolstering up the road services. "I would direct your thoughts, Mr. Hunter continued, "to the following points: —(1) Whether as a step further in the regulation of transport an mvestigation on lines of the Salter mittee in Britain and its prototype m| America would not serve a useful _ purpose in New Zealand in determining; what proportion of our growing road bill should be met by taxation levied on the motor vehicle.. "(2) Whether there is not room Iror greater unification in the control of the various transport services m the lJomiuion through a single tribunal. (,o) Whether there is not need for some coordinating authority to direct investment in trausport facilities in the channels of greatest productivity.