ELIMINATING FRICTION

Southland Times, Issue 21265, 11 December 1930, Page 5

ELIMINATING FRICTION

RAILWAYS AND CARRIERS. DEPUTATION TO MINISTER. (Per United Press Association.) Wellington, December 10. The need for greater co-ordination between the Railway Department and the carrying business with the object of doing away with the keen competition existing at present was urged by a deputation of master carriers from all parts of the Dominion which waited on the Minister of Railways (the Hon. W. A. Veitch). In reply Mr Veitch expressed the view that the passing of a Transport Bill would do away with a lot of the friction that existed between the department and the carriers and would do a lot to eliminate national waste. Mr Veitch remarked that the weakness of the heavy traffic fees system was that the motors, which served the railways, paid exactly the same as those which competed with them. That meant that the Carriers’ Association, which had made it a plank of its platform not to compete with the railways, was being penalized. The reason that justice had not been done, and he said that advisedly, was that it was impossible to remedy the position owing to financial and other difficulties. He suggested that the carriers should place their views before the Government in regard to the necessity of a Transport Bill.