The Sun. 42 WYNDHAM STREET. AUCKLAND MONDAY, JANUARY 14, 1929 AN ERROR OF JUDGMENT

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 561, 14 January 1929, Page 8

The Sun. 42 WYNDHAM STREET. AUCKLAND MONDAY, JANUARY 14, 1929 AN ERROR OF JUDGMENT

THE Auckland Transport Board showed a very poor * appreciation of the situation it is called upon to handle when it decided recently to conduct a substantial part of its business in committee. From the nature of the business transacted in open meeting last Tuesday, it seemed apparent, even if no definite pronouncement on the subject was made, that the committee procedure was to cloak discussions on policy, as well as on the trivial mass of details that come before every local authority. If the covert processes are confined only to the trivialities, none is likely to complain. It is not consistent with the spirit which should actuate the board, nor with the legitimate expectations of the people, that broad lines of policy should be evolved behind closed doors. In the result, the decision of the hoard now threatens to precipitate a rift. A division into city and suburban cliques was formed immediately Mr. E. H. Potter was nominated against Mr. Allum, and the loyalty shown by the separate sections which voted compactly, is now seen to be the conscious expression of a mute antagonism. Hard on the heels of it comes Mr. Potter’s announcement, backed by the support of Mr. F. S. Morton, that he will not hesitate to make public the happenings in committee. This would ordinarily be a grave commitment for a local administrator to accept. It* openly infringes an established rule of service. That a man of Mr. Potter’s standing and calibre, who work<*d side by side with city representatives at the many delicate conferences when the Transport Bill was before the House last October, should be willing to submerge ordinary principles in order to execute what he conceives to be his duty, reveals the peculiar nature of the circumstances, and the strength of the volume of opinion which the board has over-ridden. It is difficult to credit the vague suggestions that the new Government, with all its national concerns and anxieties, and in view of the assurances and' benedictions which some of its foremost members gave when the Transport Bill was before the House, is already contemplating intercession in the arrangements. It has no warrant to do so, and anything of the kind, before the new system has had a reasonable trial, would he little short of preposterous. The hope entertained by some of the suburban members, that flat fares of 3d may be introdouced on the trams, and all concession cards abolished, seems an advanced aspiration. Something of the sort is in force in Wellington, where 3d tickets, carrying the holder anywhere on the system, whether over one seetion or four, can be purchased on one concession card. They have been a most popular innovation, but as yet have hardly gone beyond the trial stage. Experience with the penny fares in 1927 will hardly encourage the tramway authorities to approve of so radical an experiment, though it would be much easier to effect now that the trams are no longer a direct liability on the city ratepayers. The proposal to adopt turnstiles, which would be hopelessly impractical at rush hours in Queen Street, is another that seems premature, while the ambition of outlying territories to come under the board’s sway, and have representation on it, disregards fundamental conclusions in the Transport Commission’s report. These are matters, however, that should be discussed by the board in open meeting. Should the committee policy persist, there will be a fear that the spirit of the Auckland City Council Chamber still exerts a domineering influence. That fear, arousing hostility in the suburbs, might be followed by rejection of the impending loan proposals. And rejection of the loan would mean paralysis.