TRANSPORT CONTROL

Wairarapa Daily Times, 26 June 1936, Page 3

TRANSPORT CONTROL

GOVERNMENT POLICY. INVERCARGILL, Thursday. The serious competition that the railroads of the Dominion were meeting from road transport and the steps to be taken by the Government to meet this competition were mentioned by the Minister of Mines, the Hon. P. C. Webb, in an address to a deputation at Ohai to-day. The present Government was going to put every possible ton ofproduce on the railroads, he said. It was' not going to spend hundreds of thousands of pounds, on the roads and then allow lorries to take the plums of transport. The railways must be fed, because they belonged to the country. The practice whereby lorries were day and night carrying goods from town to town was iniquitous. It resulted in serious harm to the national service, the railroads, and provided a menace on the roads. Drivers who were kept “on the go” 18 out of 24 hours could not be expected to bo as careful as they should be. This was shown by the alarming number of 1 accidents caused through drivers falling asleep. The road transport system was a bugbear, because it created all manner of difficulties, said Mr Webb. Some concerns had licences and others had not. Some abused their licences and others were scrupulously fair. There was constant friction and all the time the railroads wejro suffering. —(P.A.)