TRANSPORT IN DOMINION

Southland Times, Issue 23336, 21 October 1937, Page 6

TRANSPORT IN DOMINION

ATTITUDE OF STATE OUTLINED PROTECTION OF NATIONAL SYSTEMS (From Our Parliamentary Reporter) WELLINGTON, October 20. The attitude of the Government towards the transport system of the Dominion was the subject of comment by the Minister of Transport (the Hon. R. Semple) during the debate on the Financial Statement in the House of Representatives tonight. The aim of the Government, said Mr Semple, was to conserve the huge investment of public money in both railways and roads. “There is no intention of gobbling up all the transport systems in the country as the Leader of the Opposition (the Hon. Adam Hamilton) has said,” Mr Semple stated. “At the same time I believe licences should never have been granted to transport schemes which were in definite competition with the railways. A tremendous sum has been spent on the construction and maintenance of national systems and that money has been public money and ought tc be protected.” Mr Semple said the suggestion of some members of the Opposition was that the Government in its transport policy was playing an unfair game and was going to cripple every individual in the road transport service. That was not the case. In Australia he had found that the Victorian Government, which was not a Labour Government, had dealt ruthlessly with the transport people. In New Zealand the last Government had put people off the road without a penny compensation. The present Government had set up a group of men to value the services which were in definite competition with the railways. In Victoria some of the services were paid no compensation but had simply been refused licences. One company, with assets of £40,000, had simply been shut down. The rest of the transport people had been dealt with by reducing the rail freights. The Government was not going to bottle up everyone at present engaged in transport, Mr Semple said, but it would certainly protect investments which the public had made in national transport systems in the Dominion.