ROAD AND RAIL

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 127, 19 August 1927, Page 7

ROAD AND RAIL

problems of transport COUNTRY NOT SUITABLE FOR MOTORS 'lt might interest your readers to know,- writes a well-known Hawke’s Bay trainer, “that the majority of the °cul trainers have arranged the transport of their teams by motor lorry for the coming season. One firm has built* °xes *° car ry 18 horses. Another for horses and another firm for 10 these three are in Hastings a Qd I understand two Napier firms arc * 8 ° building boxes. In every case e y guarantee to transport the horses t less than railway rates.” g e ßail ' Vay transport of horses has cut j s ?' ere ly into the pockets of owners in f ei * Zealand of recent years and the j* Ct has °ften been published that it t 0 sei ? d a h «> r se to race in a , n I s to a New Zealand tanpo ? held at any considerable distort!,nf* 0 ! 01 the training ground. Unoff g ®i* ly t he Dominion is very badly ImnL,. . \? p hieally so far as its more tfiain c ' nt meetir >gs are concerned, the Allies being several hundred apart, and added to this the

physical features and the country, particularly in the North Island, increase th r e t that the Traffic Department of the New Zealand Railways is making liorsp transport do much more than pay its way, but there is a chance of rates being reduced. During the currency of the Wellington Win ter meeting last month a representative deputation of trainers met the Railway authorities and as a result costs are being thoroughly investigated. No definite information is yet available, but the trainers in possession of the facts state that the Department is making a real effort to meet the desires of horse owners and that a reduction in rates as well as the grant- „ ing of other facilities is likely to result. Where roads are flat motor transport should not be difficult but in the North Island especially, obstacles may arise that do not have to enter in the calculations of railway tariffs. Even in Sydney, where motor transport has been on the increase, one read recently where a horse so transported arrived late on the course for its engagement, and the trainer was heavilyfined. Motor transport of horses in New Zealand is not likely to grow to any considerable proportions if the Railway authorities are reasonable in their dealings with owners and trainers.