GOODS TRANSPORT

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 55, Issue 3928, 19 July 1937, Page 8

GOODS TRANSPORT

COMPLETE STATE CONTROL NOT INTENDED. MINISTER’S LETTER TO N.Z.F.U. CONFERENCE. “Your fear that the taking over of the long-distance freight services by the Railways Department is a preliminary to taking over all forms of goods transport is quite unfounded,” said the Minister of Transport in a letter read by the president of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union, Mr W. W. Mulholland, at the annual conference of that body at Wellington last Friday. The Minister went on to say that the Government’s proposals covered only 197 trucks out of a total of 45,000 in the Dominion. The Government was not arbitrarily “strangling” road transport in favour of the railways. It was fully recognised that, on account of its flexibility and mobility, motor transport afforded a wonderful service for the rural areas. The sole aim of the Government was to increase the efficiency of all forms of transport. Experience had shown that it was possible to bulk the freights of the long-distance road services and haul them on the railways without any deterioration in the standard of service. While the “truck rate” system had proved the practicability of co-ordinating the longdistance road and rail services, it had also shown that the possibilities of co-ordination were limited so long as road services were organised in small units and until the one ownership embraced both services. The conference made the following resolution:— “That this conference entirely disagrees that ‘single ownership’ of transport services is essential to their efficient operation and states emphatically that, if co-ordination can be brought about only by the elimination of small operators, it would be too dearly purchased and the idea should be abandoned . . . The mobility and flexibility of motor transport would be largely destroyed if small units were eliminated . . . The statement that only 197 trucks out of the 45,000 are affected shows that the action cannot affect the co-ordination of transport as suggested . . . unless a very much greater extension of control is intended.”