NO DICTATION

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23512, 24 November 1939, Page 5

NO DICTATION

TRANSPORT BUSINESS ASSERTION BY MR. SEMPLE PROTECTION OF RAILWAYS [by tklkcraph—owx correspondent] WELLINGTON, Thursday The Government had no intention of interfering with those services which were not operating in direct competition with the railways, said the Minister of Transpoi*t, the Hon. R. Semple, to-day, when addressing the annual conference of the New Zealand Road Transport Alliance. There seemed to be some kind of false, impression in the minds of some people associated with transport that the Government intended to commandeer, confiscate or take over the whole of the transport industry in New Zealand, said the Minister. This belief was quite false, and there was no such idea in tho mind of the Government. Mr. Semple said hq wanted to give his personal assurance that the Government did not wish to dictate to transport operators or interfere with the ownership of their business. The transport industry in New Zealand was as safe as it ever was in the past. The concerns belonged to the operators and represented their own personal genius, courage and enterprise. It might be said the Government did interfere with some transport concerns, the Minister added, but that was true of every country in the world. They had all been compelled by circumstances to adopt such measures. Wellington city, for example, had been compelled to buy up a bus system which had developed through years in order ,to save the tramway systems. Christchurch and Auckland had been compelled to do the same. No other course was open when thousands of pounds were invested in tramway systems. ' The railways had come into the picture and the Government had been obliged to do precisely, the same as had been done in the case of_ tramways. The Government had diverted as much business as possible to the railways, because they were a public institution.