“NO INJUSTICE.”

Wairarapa Age, 27 May 1936, Page 5

“NO INJUSTICE.”

PLEDGE BY THE MINISTER OF TRANSPORT. NEED OF CO-ORDINATION. AMENDING BILL PASSES THIBD BEADING. (By Telegraph—" The Age” Special.) WELLINGTON, May 26. “There will be no injustice while I am Minister,” declared the Hon. R. Semple, Minister of Transport, in the House of Representatives to-night, in prefacing his references to private transport interests. These, he said, had grown up under the law, which allowed them some rights. “And those rights,” he continued, “will be protected so far as I am concerned. I said that to the transport people. I know that if I were a carrier and the Government of the day set on me, threw me on the roadside and crucified me—l know what I would think of them. ”

As for the Opposition criticism, he admitted that they had their rights, but he strongly objected to the imputation of foul motives. The transport system bristled with difficulties and he had sympathy with any Minister who had tried to control it in the past. The original Transport Act was good, but the Co-ordination Board sabotaged it. There were many wonderful provisions in it and the Act was well drawn, but where the former Minister met his Waterloo was when he appointed the Co-ordination Board, which let him down. He had Heard nothing good of them in any part of the country and the fact was that an incompetent and “ungetatable” board had spoiled the legislation. The task to be faced was to bring about co-ordination, for it was not a question of road versus rail, or against the air. To-day the air service was a minor question, but he believed it would become a major one in a few years because the development possible was beyond the dreams of most of us. They must dovetail all services, preventing cut-throat competition, waste and sweating and organising all in such a way that the people would receive a higher degree of efficiency and the cheapest, speediest and best form of transport. The Bill was read a third time without a division.