“FEARS UNFOUNDED”

Waikato Times, Volume 121, Issue 20248, 17 July 1937, Page 12

“FEARS UNFOUNDED”

CONTROL OF TRANSPORT. FARMERS’ OPPOSITION. (By Telearapu.—Pf*as Association.) WELLINGTON, Friday. “ Your fear that the taking-over of long-distance freight services by the Railway Department is a preliminary to taking over all forms of goods transport is quite unfounded,” said the Minister of Transport in a letter read by the president of Ihe New Zealand Farmers’ Union, Mr W. W. Mulholland, at the annual conference to-day. The Minister said the Government’s proposals covered only 197 trucks out of a total of 45,000 in the Dominion. The Government was not arbitrarily strangling road transport in favour of the railways. The sole aim of the Government was to increase the efficiency of all forms of transport. The conference adopted the following resolution: “That the conference entirely disagrees. that single ownership of transport services is essential to efficient operation, and states emphatically that if co-ordination can be brought about only by the elemination of small operators it will be too dearly purchased and the idea should be abandoned. The mobility and flexibility of motor transport would be largely destroyed if small units were eliminated. The statement that only 197 trucks out of 45.000 are affected shows that the action cannot effect the co-ordination of transport as suggested unless a very much greater extension of control is Intended.”