TRANSPORT BILL

Waikato Times, Volume 110, Issue 18404, 11 August 1931, Page 10

TRANSPORT BILL

REPLY TO CRITICS.

MINISTER’S STATEMENT. PROTECTING THE PUBLIC. “ The Transport Licensing Bill is not designed to bolster up the railways or any other form of transport. It has been designed to protect the public, and to see that transport, both publicly and privately owned, is utilised to provide necessary and desirable service to the people."

In making the above statement in an Interview, the Hon. W. A. Veitch (Minister of Transport) said it was apparent that a lot of missapprehension existed with regard to the provisions of the Bill, and this was due to some extent to the fact that the second reading of the measure had only been taken pro forma in the House, and consequently no public explanation had been given of the various clauses.

It was quite clear also, the Minister continued, that a number of organisations had rushed into print with Interpretations of many of the clauses that were wide of the actual meaning of the proposals. It seemed to him an extraordinary thing that lay bodies and other persons should so confidently criticise such a measure without first consulting legal or economic experts for information as to the meaning of and reason for the inclusion of the very well established and important principles upon which the proposals had been formulated. Kot to Bolster the Railways. “ So far as the general aplication of the Bill is concerned with existing services," said Mr Veitch, “no Justii flcation exists for the assertion that the Bill is designed to bolster up the railways. One of the clauses provides that a passenger service licence shall not be refused in any case where the applicant is carrying on the service on April 1, 1931, providing it is not in competition with a service licensed under the Motor Omnibus Traffic Act. The clause, however, does not provide that services commencing after April 1, 1931, shall be refused a licence. The licensing authorities in all such cases must take into account the matters contained in another clause, which, in short, make it necessary for the applicant to show that the service is necessary or desirable in the public Interest. “ If the licensing authority decides that the service is not necessary or desirable in the public interest, it shall refuse to grant a licence, in which case the applicant would have the right of an appeal to the statutory appeal board constituted under the Bill, and the decision of that board would be final. If the appeal board were to allow the appeal, it would then be necessary for the licensing authority to grant a licence." Uneconomic Services. The Minister added that, speaking generally, it might be said that well established services were prima facie necessary or deslrabl/,. m the public Interest, otherwise they would not have obtained continued public patronage. It was well known, however, that under the existing conditions an enormous amount of unnecessary vehicle mileage was being run, involving high road maintenance costs and destructive ratecutting, and adding generally to the unit cost of the Dominion’s transport. Economic reductions were not possible under present conditions, due to the absence of the legislative proposals contained in the Bill. Road operators themselves were quite unable to co-ordinate, since others promptly put on services to replace any taken off by more present owners for the purpose of reducing services, to something more akin to reasonable requirements.