Transport Policy.

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 177, 13 August 1937, Page 6

Transport Policy.

Sir, — ^According to a recent Prees report, a' "definite assurance that the Government had no intention of imposing any restrictions on farmers using' their own trucks for the carriage of their produce has been given by -the Minister of Railwayts, the Hon. D. G. Sullivan. Without impugning the sincerity of this utterance^. aa representing the present intention of the Minister, it is important to observe that the assurance is very limited in its application, and inadequate as a safcguard even within its limits. It may be the intention of the Minister for the time being not to interfei# with farmers carrying their own pro« ducet but no Government can bind itself ind^finitely, an.d the present transport policy will not stay put wher© it may be intended to stop at the moment. If it should turn out that the carting by farmers of their own pro- . duce in their own vehicles is considered to operate adversely to railway revenue, there is little reason to doubt that restrictions will soon be imposed in one form or7 another to force them to employ railway transport. The Minister has given no indication as to the nature of the "flexible firstclaas service" he proposes.to sujjstitute for the present admittedly highly efiicient. road transport industry; and the irresistible inference is that the . motive for interference is the intention to bolster up, at the cost of users of freight transport, an uneconomic, expensive, inconvenient and dictatorial railway monopoly.— Yours, etc., H. J. KNIGHT, Wellington, Aug. 11, 1937.