PRIVATE BUS SUPPORT

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 759, 4 September 1929, Page 16

PRIVATE BUS SUPPORT

MT. ROSKILL ROAD BOARD’S ACTION TRANSPORT COMPETITION The Mount Roskill Road Board, at its meeting last evening, supported the principal of private enterprise in transport as against public control. A private concern proposes to place nine buses on the road, the fares charged to be lower than those of the Auckland Transport Board. The question arose out of an application by Mr. M. W. Karews for permission to run bus services between the city and Waikowhai by way of Buckland Road and Hillsborough Road. Mr. Karews urged his application in person and offered to put on nine buses at lower fares than those charged by the Transport Board. He also gave an undertaking to carry out the financial obligations required by law. Mr. E. W. D. Foote said that the Transport Board had contended that private buses did not pay, but he held that one reason why many business concerns did not pay was because they were inefficiently managed. Mr. G. E. Tansley advised caution. He thought that the Roskill Board should confer with the Transport Board. There should be co-operation between the two bodies. He could not support the application. Mr. E. A. Pearce held that the at titude of the Transport Board toward private enterprise had caused great irritation in the Roskill district. The board should support this application, especially as the ratepayers were being offered a reduction in fares. Mr. Karews had also offered workers’ concession fares, a proposal that the Transport Board had refused. Mr. S. Scarborough: The district received a satisfactory service under private enterprise. Why should we consider the Transport Board? It never considered us. He also alleged that passengers were receiving but scant courtesy at the hands of the Transport Board’s employees. The chairman, Mr. E. F. Jones, stood for private enterprise because under that system the district had been well served. If the Transport Board’s buses were losing money, it should be glad to get rid of them. On his motion it was resolved to inform the Transport Board that the | board had no objection to Mr. j Karews’s application. Mr. Tansley was I the only dissentient.