TRANSPORT COMPETITION

Taranaki Daily News, 8 June 1932, Page 7

TRANSPORT COMPETITION

POLICY OF BOARD EXPLAINED CHECKING WASTE ON SAME ROUTE NOT MAKING RAILWAY MONOPOLY DEFINITION OF PUBLIC INTEREST By Telegraph.—Prefs Association. Christchurch, June 7. The policy guiding the decisions of the Transport Appeal Board was outlined by Mr. Justice Frazer yesteidaj when bo defined the board© view oi what constituted public interest in lelation to transport. . A word or two had been said in regard to a monopoly for the R al ‘" a y Department, he said. The object of the Act was not so much to set up a monopoly in favour either of the Lai - way Department or of a rival motor service, but it was intended to check wasteful and uneconomic competition betwen different forms of transport over the same route. . , In arriving at a conclusion as to vna was desirable in the public interest the board had to consider the question or wasteful competition, if a more or less luxury service competed with the railway service to such an extent as. to prejudice the, finances of that service. If the railway could give a convenient, fast and efficient service, which would supply the needs of the people, then obviously anything that cut into that service was wasteful, and in the long run the public had to pay.