TRANSPORT POOL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 June 1942, Page 4

TRANSPORT POOL

UNDER CONTROL OF ZONING OFFICERS STATEMENT BY MR SEMPLE. SERVICES OF ALL TO BE METHODISED'.'# (By Telegraph—Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, This Day. Mr T. H. Langford, No. 3 Transport Licensing Authority, would be appointed zoning officer for the South Island and an appointment would be made shortly for the North Island, announced the Minister of Transport (Mr Semple). The Minister said regulations dealing with the pooling of transport and the zoning of foodstuffs had been approved by the War Cabinet. They gave him power to appoint zoning officers. His own view was that zoning would not stop at milk and bread, but would extend to all commodities carried to the people’s homes. What further steps were taken in that direction depended on the investigations of tiie zoning officers and the recommendations that would be made. ‘■The regulations make provision for the Minister of Supply (Mr Sullivan) to order zoning to be done and then the execution of the order is passed on to me as Minister of Transport,” added Mr Semple.. “The pooling of transport is entirely in the hands of the Transport Department. That means that there will be no unnecessary running or unnecessary waste of petrol or tires. A carter or taxi near the point from which the order comes will execute that order, and not someone a mile or so away. In other words, overlapping and long-distance running, when there are services close to the place where the service is required, have got to cease. The transport of people and commodities has got to be scientifically and methodically controlled.” Asked whether pooling would affect railway bus services, the Minister said it would affect everything on wheels. There would be no exemptions. “The big job is to keep our second line intact, and by that I mean the commercial and industrial transport system,” he said. "If that breaks, then the first line of defence is in jeopardy. I have just come from the extreme 1 north, where I had to ask people to deny themselves a daily service they had been getting since 1914, and to take commodities from the road and put them on boats. That means a three day service instead of a six day service. I am happy to say that these people co-operated with me 100 per cent when they knew the gravity of tiie situation. I want to assure the * public that we are not doing these things by choice, but because we are compelled to do so in the interests of the nation’s safety.”