ROAD TRANSPORT MERGERS

Southland Times, Issue 24545, 20 September 1941, Page 7

ROAD TRANSPORT MERGERS

COMPULSION ALLEGED DEPARTMENT’S METHODS CRITICIZED /(Special) WELLINGTON, Sept. 19. “This is compulsion of a vicious kind,” said the Leader of the Opposition (Mr S. G. Holland) in the House of Representatives today when criticizing the methods used in some instances by the Transport Department to force operatives into mergers. Mr Holland raised the issue when the department’s estimates were being considered. “What concerns me,” Mr Holland said, “is the decision of the Government to apply what I think may be called coercion against transport operatives in forcing them into mergers.” Mr Holland said that in North Canterbury 16 or 17 operatives had been forced into a merger, whether they liked it or not, being told that if they did not they would run a grave risk of losing their licences. The rates to be charged were fixed by the Licensing Authority and as a result the company lasted 10 months. It was now in liquidation and its capital of about £20,000 had all gone. Mr H. S. S. Kyle (Nat., Riccarton) said that there had been too much interference with the transport of the country. Where operatives were giving good service and not interfering with the railways, they should be left alone. PRINCIPLE SOUND Mr W. J. Polson (Nat., Stratford) said that _ the Government’s principle of creating mergers was sound, but he was not satisfied with the coercive methods employed by some of the transport authorities. Mr W. S ; Goosman (Nat., Waikato) suggested that transport licensing authorities should consist of more than one man. One-man decisions were often resented by operatives and consumers. The Minister of Transport (the Hon. R. Semple) said there had never been a suggestion on the part of the Government or himself of forcing anyone to do anything they did not want to do. He had even asked the House last year to pass amendments to the Act as a result of several cases where he thought that sufficient evidence had not been hear to enable licensing authorities to make a decision. The merger referred to by the Leader of the Opposition was an unfortunate case, but there were 25 other mergers in New Zealand that were working satisfactorily. If some Licensing Authority had coerced anyone he had done it off his own bat and not with the knowledge of the Transport Department. If methods of coercion had been used they had been used contrary to Government policy and without his knowledge or consent. They would not occur again.