TRANSPORT SERVICES

Otago Witness, Issue 4039, 11 August 1931, Page 60

TRANSPORT SERVICES

OBJECTS OF LICENSING BILL ELTAIINATION OF AVASTEFUL COAI PETITION. AVELLINGTON, August 8. The Alinister of Transport (Air AV. A. A’eiteh), in an interview to-day, said that so far as the Transport Licensing Bill applied to existing services there was no justification for the assertion that the Bill was designed to bolster up the railways. It was designed, he said, to protect the public and see that the means of transport, both publicly and privately owned, were utilised to provide a necessary and desirable for the people. One of the clauses of the Bill provides that a passenger service license shall not be refused in any case where the applicant was carrying on the service on April 1, 1931. provided it is not in competition with a service licensed under the Motor Omnibus Traffic Act. The clause, however, does not provide that services commencing after April 1, 1931, shall be refused a license. The licensing authorities in all such eases must take into account the matters contained in another clause, which, in short, make it necessary for the applicant to show that the service'is necessary or desirable in the public interest. If tlie licensing authority decides that the service is not necessary or desirable in the public interest it shall refuse to grant a license, in which case the applicant would have the fight of appeal to a statutory appeal board constituted under the Bill, and the decision of the board would be final. If the Appeal Board were to allow the appeal it would then be necessary for the licensing authority to grant a license. The Alinister added that it might be said that well-established services were prima 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 was being run, involving high poad maintenance coSts and destructive rate-cutting, and adding generally to the unit cost of the Dominion’s transport. Economic reduetions were not possible under present conditions owing to the absence of the legislative proposals contained in the Bill, The road operators themselves were quite unable to co-ordinate, since others promptly put on services to replace any that were taken off by the present owners for the purpose of reducing the services to something more akin to reasonable requirements.