TITAHI BUS SERVICES

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 75, 30 March 1933, Page 13

TITAHI BUS SERVICES

RIVAL APPLICANTS

AUTHORITY'S ? DECISION

The hearing' of eyidenco iv the applications of Sj A. Criehtbn and J. A. Hunter for passenger licences for. the Wellington-Titahi.Bay bus services was continued yesterday and today before the Central Licensing Authority. Hunter sought a renewal of an existing licence, and Crich'ton, who has a Wel-lington-Johnsonville licence, an extension pf his service. It ;was alleged that if Crichton's.. application were granted- it would detrimentally affect Hunter's business.

Witnesses expressed a desire for the renewal of the existing Titahi Bay service, and a bounty official, giving evidence as a resident of part of the district, spoke- of the assistance given in the freo transport of workers.

Mr. F. W. Aiekin, for the Railways Department, said that there wcro'no objections to the applications. If Hunter were allowed/to pick up Johnsonville passengers, the question of fares would have to be revised, otherwise Hunter would have different fares from Criehton, The Department asked that the existing fares to Johnsonville and Porirua be maintained, and if a licence were granted Crichton, that the fares be those now charged.':..... S. A. Crichtdn, the applicant for the new licence, Wellington-Titahi Bay, gavo evidence as the time his existing service had run, and-the particulars of his. buses and their suitability for the work. He said he could run the extra Titahi service with his existing plant. His* present run was chiefly a week-day one, and the additional weekend service to Titahi Bay would suit him. . . ' '

•J. A. Hunter, proprietor of the Wcl-lington-Titahi bus .service said that he had run it since 1928. His contract had precluded^ special catering for Johnsonville residents, but did not stop him picking them up casually. He had done this until; last year, when ho was restricted front doing so. His buses were inspected in . August-September last year, and were fit for the service, and, as the road had been recently tar-sealed, he could now keep them in better order^ Dealing with occasions when the timetable had not been adhered to, the witness said that school children going to Wellington went 'by train from Porirua, and ho had to stop for.the trains, even when they wero'late. His time-, table was kept quite reasonably, and Ms' running time was all that was demanded.

Hunter was granted a renewal of his Wcllington-Titahi Bay licence. The chairman (Colonel S. S. Allen) said the service needed improvement. "We viewed one of th& buses and came to the conclusion that the complaints as to th 6 type of bus employed were- .exaggerated,'.'said the, chairman. ' "In Crichtbn's case," continued the chairman, ."the1 application is refused, but we wish to say in regard to tho Titahi Say Golf Club that if a special application is made, whether by tho secretary of the Golf Club, in one sat of circumstances, by Crichton in another, we would ibe prepared to consider the state of affairs on that particular run, and it is possible that we might see our way to grant a licence, perhaps for a. particular run on Saturday afternoons. In any case a special application must Toe made." A renewal of the Wellington-John-sonville licence held by S. A. Crichton was granted with minor alterations to the- time-table sought by the applicant. There were no objections. •