TRANSPORT APPEALS

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 90, 13 October 1934, Page 14

TRANSPORT APPEALS

QUESTION OF PERSONNEL

MINISTER'S CONCESSION

(By Telegraph—Press Association.)

NELSON, October 12.

The Minister of Transport has replied to the protest of the Nelson City Council against those provisions of the Transport Act which allowed the same members to decide cases and to hear appeals.

He said: "It had become apparent under the 1931 Act that procedure could be exceedingly costly, e,nd the 1933 amendment was not designed to deprive (nor does it deprive) any interested party of reasonable hearing. It does, however, make possible, by elimination of unnecessary and complete rehearings, a measure of financial relief to all concerned. Under the earlier legislation the tribunal was the Appeal Board pure and simple. The amending legislation established a board the primary function of which is to co-ordinate various forms of transport, the method of exercising that f-unction in respect of road transport being by means of power vested in the board to determine appeals lodged from decisions of transport licensing authorities. "In the particular case in which the council is concerned, exception is taken to two members of the board, as they constituted the personnel which, as the Centrnl Licensing Authority, made the decision appealed against. Although it is extremely important that the Transport Co-ordination Board should have final jurisdiction in transport matters, in view of the fact that the board has a large amount of investigational work for the Government in hand, that only a small number of cases is involved in the decision, and that a similar position cannot arise again, I am prepared, having already consulted the board, to exercise the powers conferred in me and arrange for those cases not already heard and which come within the category, complained of, to be heard by a different personnel from that which constituted the old Central Licensing Authority. I can assure you this decision does not in any way imply that the Government has any reason to doubt the impartiality of the members of the board, but in view of the attitude adopted by those interested it has been decided to remove any suggestion of injustice by a departure from what is the usual procedure, despite the fact that it has been ruled by the Supreme Court that the board can legally hear such cases."

Councillor Moynagh said that the protest received almost, unanimous approval throughout the Dominion. The council decided that the Minister 's reply was generally unsatisfactory, while noting with satisfaction that arrangements had been made for a different tribunal to hear impending appeals, and to request the Minister to inform the council what action he intends taking towards repealing the section in dispute in response to represen-, Nations from the New Zealand Law Society, the Canterbury and 'Wellington Chambers of Commerce, and the almost unanimous opinion of local bodies of the Dominion.