RIVAL TRANSPORT

New Zealand Herald, Volume 82, Issue 25177, 14 April 1945, Page 10

RIVAL TRANSPORT

CO-ORDINATION URGED

STABILISED FREIGHT RATES (P.A.) WELLINGTON, Friday

"To effect efficient co-ordination between various forms of transport there should be co-operation between the controlling interests of each. While each industry is acting independently of the>other there cannot be that cooperation and co-ordination so eminently desirable," said Mr P. Skoglund, No. 2 Transport Licensing Authority, in evidence submitted to the Rail and Coastal Shipping Committee. '

"It must be admitted," he added, "that under present conditions there is room for improvement, and that if each form of transport were allotted its proper place in the economic life of the Dominion our produce itnd imported goods could he more economically handled. The Mercantile Fleet "Before the present Government took action, there was open and intensive competition between the road, rail and water-borne transport services. This was aggravated by competition of road services with the railways, causing them to compete more intensively with water-borne transport. It is necessary in a sea-girt country to maintain a mercantile fleet, and nothiing should be done to discourage this form of transport." Power should be taken in the Transport Licensing Act to bring the coastal harbour and river shipping services under the Act, where this was considered .desirable in the public interest, said Mr Skoglund. Freight rates in all land and water transport services should be stabilised within the Dominion, and a unified and revised schedule for railway freight was an urgent matter. Railway Cut Rates Kail freights should not be cut below sea freight, and railways should cooperate with the ship-owners for combined carriage wherever practicable, rather than compete "with shipping companies for through haulage at cut rates, said a statement submitted by the Union Steam Ship Company to the committee.

"We take exception to charges for similar "Services being computed by the Railway Department at different rates," said a statement submitted on behalf of the Associated Chambers of Commerce. "It appears that these low rates operate where there are other means of transport, and they give the impression that the Goverment service is out to kill opposition, even at loss to itself." i POST WAR INDUSTRY MR SULLIVAN CRITICISED NEGOTIATIONS IN BRITAIN "The excursion abroad of the Minister of Supply, Mr Sullivan, has been a dismal failure, more likely to have ostracised us than to have acquired sympathy from Britain., and we mav well ask ourselves the question, 'Whither New Zealand?' " said Mr G. D. Rutter, the retiring president of the Bureau of Importers, at the recent annual meetitjg. Mr Rutter added that the agreement reached between Mr Sullivan and the British Ministers was, by his own admission, nothing more or less than an agreement to differ. Mr Rutter quoted from a recent issue of the Labour journal the Standard that "full recognition of New Zealand's unchallengeable right to pursue her own line and to establish such industries as she thought right resulted from the negotiations conducted by Mr Sullivan." He described this as "sheer nonsense." The right of New Zealand to pursue her own lyie of internal economy resulted from the Statute of Westminster, which gave to New Zealand the full status of a self-governing Dominion, and was in no way contributed to by Mr Sullivan.

"If New Zealand wishes to pursue her present policy of economic suicide, Britain is powerless to.stay-'our hand," added Mr Hutter. "She can simply offer us such friendly advice as might enable us to change our course before foundering on the rocks of national disaster. That such advice was tendered was granted by Mr Sullivan, who further stated that, without exception, the British Ministers in submitting their point of view were courteous, friendly and kind. Their thoughts and discussions were 011 the line that increased exports were necessary to Britain's post-war recovery, and that New Zealand should help bv refraining from uneconomic industrial expansion. "Mr Sullivan, found himself unable to agree with them on policy, and apparently there the matter rested, but for the fact that the British Ministers gave an assurance that, subject to war priorities, there would be 710 discriminatory _ actions to prevent New Zealand obtaining from the United Kingdom such capital goods and raw materials as may be necessary."