The Star. FRIDAY, JANUARY 15, 1926. DRASTIC MOTOR BUS REGULATIONS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17745, 15 January 1926, Page 6

The Star. FRIDAY, JANUARY 15, 1926. DRASTIC MOTOR BUS REGULATIONS.

The regulations that have been drafted for the control of motor-bus traffic will no doubt be modified a great deal before they are put into operation, but the Government seems to have lent such a willing car to tramway interests in making the first draft that the final result is likely to err on the side of severity. As it is, the first draft seems to have been designed to kill bus enterprise wherever it daies to raise its head, even if it is not in active competition with tramways. This is amply proved by the following clause, which would virtually prevent any Christchurch bus from starting, say, from Cathedral Square: The owner of any bus which is running for the whole or any part of its journey in any district along or near the route of any tramway shall charge its passengers for the whole or such portion of its journey as is along or near such route, as the case may be, not less than the fare for the time being charged by the proprietor of such tramway for the whole journey along the full length of such tramway.

It will be noted that it is not even necessary for a bus to run on the tram route, for so long as it goes “ near ” it or even crosses it, it is to be bound by a prohibitive provision that would mean either the death of motor buses altogether, or in the alternative—and a much more probable alternative in the present state of public opinion—the issue of a notice to quit to the tftms themselves. If this regulation were to stand, the reasonableness or otherwise of the remaining regulations would hardly be worth considering. In the meantime, however, it will be noted that the drift of the regulations is to compel services like those of Kaiapoi, Southbridge or other places where the fare does not exceed 2s to operate only from a tram terminus and not from the heart of the city. Fortunately in the case of Christchurch, the licensing authority, which is to have a fair amount of discretion in the matter of fares and routes, will be the City Council and not the Tramway Board, but in any case it is difficult to see why the Christchurch City Council should be able to regulate and control the licensing of bus services, say, from the railway to the Hororata or Amberley racecourses.

The experience of Arctic explorers in recent years, and particularly that of Captain Amundsen in his Polar flight, seems to demonstrate that the North Pole will not be reached by aeroplane. For this reason there is a greater glamour about the dash to he made in March by Captain AVilkins in his Fokker machine, for even Amundsen owed the safety of his party to the fact that, while one machine had to he abandoned, the other barely managed to leave the ice pack. In selecting Point Barrow, the most northerly point of Alaska, Captain Wilkins appears to have adopted the best starling point, for this will place the territory which he hopes to explore in his direct path, whilst in hopping-off from Spitzhergen, as Amundsen intends to do, he would first have to cross the Pole before reaching the vast unexplored tract which is his real objective. The distance north from Point Barrow to the fringe of the unexplored area is about 200 miles, a distance which should be covered in very short time. Captain Amundsen, on the other hand, has to fly 700 miles from Spitzhergen to the Pole and then head across the unexplored region to Point Barrow, a further 1500 miles. Probably the most interesting feature of these rival undertakings is the fact that two modes of flying will be tried out. The aeroplane has been used twice in the Arctic now once by Amundsen and once by Captain MacMillan—and each time has failed. This time Amundsen will make the attempt in an airship, eminently more suitable for this sort of work whereas Wilkins will give the aeroplane another chance.’ The actual scientific value of the expeditions is undoubted, and whether they win or fail the world will owe a debt to these intrepid men, who risk all in the cause of Science.