STATE TRANSPORT MONOPOLY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22819, 28 August 1937, Page 12

STATE TRANSPORT MONOPOLY

Those who use road transport were given plain notice of what is in store for them by Mr. 11. C. Couch, district traffic manager of railways, in his statement to the Licensing Authority yesterday. All private carriers will shortly be put off the roads, and their business taken over by a Railways Department monopoly. There will' be an end of competition and maybe of much of the service that goes with it. Merchants and farmers have come to rely a good deal on the speed and mobility that are the essence of motor transport. There is a justifiable feeling that with State service, plus monopoly, there will be a lack of the convenience and obligingness that private road transport gives. Unless the plea of rationalisation is a figment, there will also be pressure to carry almost everything by rail, even although that should cost several handlings and a slowingup in delivery. Examples have already been given in the case of teachers' furniture. As well as convenience, there is the matter of cost, also exemplified with teachers' removals. AVill the transport user be able to obtain the same service from the railways at rates comparable with those charged under competition ? He cannot help having noticed that, even with the heavy freights of good times, the railways could not pay running expenses, apart from interest charges, in the last four weekly period. Will the department do any better, or even as well, when it has also to manage an intricate road transport business, or will it seek to recoup itself by raising transport charges? Unless in this new business the State shows ability it has hitherto failed to develop, the outlook is not promising for either road transport users, or taxpayers, or both. In any casj the present owners, managers and some of, the employees of road services are bound to be displaced—all in the blessed name of rationalisation., ,