WELLINGTON TOPICS

Hokitika Guardian, 25 January 1926, Page 4

WELLINGTON TOPICS

BATTLE OF THE BUSES. .MUNICIPAL ALARM. (Special to “ Guardian.”) WELLINGTON, January 21. Wellington, like other big centres of population, is being invaded by a fleet (if privately owned motor-buses, and the niuncipal authorities are becoming alarmed lost their own transport services should be gravely prejudiced by these new arrivals. So far their attempts to run the invaders off the road have been almost ludicrously futile, the buses appearing to grow in popularity day by day, and their appeal to the Government for protection has produced only a set of draft regulations which '"•ill be discussed at a conference between representatives of the various parties concerned early nest month. The proposed regulations, if they were adopted would make it extremely difficult for the buses to carry on against municipal competition. They obviously have been drafted—not necessarily, of course, with the compliance of the responsible Minister—to extend protection to existing tramway undertakings at the expense of the general public. They provide among others things, that Ihe Inis fare charged for the whole or such portion of the journey as is along or near a tramway route shall not he less than the full fare charged for the whole length of the route, and that the minimum aggregate amount of insurance against liability shall bo £5.000 for any bus seating capacity for ten passengers and an additional £SOO for each passenger over ten. A PROTEST. The bus proprietors declare that those regulations, and others to a similar effect, have been drafted with the sole object of crippling the legitimate opposition to the existing services. They are quite willing to provide every reasonable protection for the public, but they refuse to bo driven out of business by municipal incapacity. “The ruling consideration in amending the draft regulations.” says the “ Dominion,” in a judicial review of the situa-. lion, “should be that the public are entitled to the advantages arising out of the development of up-to-date and efficient passenger transport. The fact that tramway undertakings are liable to be prejudiced by motor-bus competition supplies no reason or justification for penalising the more modern form of transport in favor of one that is becoming obsolete. The public in any case has to pay. and is entitled to the best service that can he given. The aim must bo to establish fair conditions of competition, and in this connection it should lie remembered that, in common with other motor vehicles, the motor-bus is now paying its full share towards the cost of making and

maintaining the roads on which it runs.” Public opinion is largely with the bus proprietors, who. for the most part, are maintaining admirable services at reasonable charges and the popular opinion is that, whether run by the municipal authorities or by private enterprise, the railless vehicles have come to stay. C 0 XT ROB All A NT) 0 X ED. The announcement made by the new Minister of Agriculture yesterday to the effect that control by the Government of the approaching wheat, harvest had been abandoned was not unexpected. It has been an open secret for some time past that the Prime Minister did not share the penchant of the late Minister of Agriculture for “controlling.” “ subsidising ” and other forms of State aiding, and it is known now that it was mainly on this account that Mr Xosworihy laid down the prof folio he had held so long. The change in the control of the Department of Agriculture, indeed, may he regarded ns the first definite expression of .Mr Coates’s policy of “ more business in Government and less Government in business.” The new .Minister, however, seems still to have reserved lo himself the right io give the wheatgrowers further assistance through the Customs tariff. "The Government has agreed to abandon control.” bo says in the course of bis statement. " and to

allow the market lo take ils own course belnml the protection of the In riff, which, however, may at n Inter date refillin' to he adjusted or modified ns nifty lie found necessary.” This proviso is occasioning a good deal of uneasiness here, it being taken to mean that if the farmers and millers clamour loud enough the duty on flour will he raised and a penny added to the price of the four pound loaf. “ DISASTROUS PAMPERING!.” So little wheat is grown in the North Island in these days that it is not surprising to find a large majority of the people in this part of the Dominion disapproving, more or less emphatically, of the “ scandalous pampering of the Canterbury farmers,” as a prominent politician stigmatised today the very special encouragement given to the cultivation of this coreai since (ho beginning of the war. As a matter of fact the bins on one side in the North is as strong as the bias is on the other side of the South. So long as the high price of bread in New Zealand is not raised to a still higher figure, and s () long as a majority of tlie politicians refrain from discussing this delicate subject, there will he no organised outburst against the favours bestowed upon the wheat growing provime. Hut if the extra penny a

loaf the chairman of directors of Distributors Limited was talking about in Christchurch yesterday, is actually imposed then the consumers who are compelled to keep a close eye upon their daily expenditure will begin lo make a noise and will not he without influential sympathisers. New Zealand’s prosperity is not so equitably distributed that the whole community could afford to disregard a still further rise in the cost of the prime necessary of life.