WELLINGTON TOPICS

Hokitika Guardian, 28 March 1933, Page 7

WELLINGTON TOPICS

ROAD TRAFFIC

(NEW REGULATIONS

(Special Correspondent).

•WELLINGTON, March 24. The Right Hon. J. G. Coates, in the capacity of Minister -of Transport, supplies in-the city newspapers to-day a much more lucid outline of the new regulations for the control of the roads of the Dominion in the near future than do the officials entrusted with the task. “In formulating these proposals,” th e Minister gays’, “great c are has been taken in order to ensure that the regulations could be inaugurated so as to cause the minimum interference with existing services. At the same time the -object wa s to provide adequate scope for the licensing authorities to effect -valuable c o-ordina. tioii of services and, what is extremely important, to bring about a stability in the transport industry as a whole 'by. removing, after careful study and contact with the actual conditions, many of the evils which ar e responsible for the unsatisfactory state of affairs existing to-day.” If these good resolutions are observed, as they doubTfesg will be, none of the parties will have occasion to complain.

■SPOON FEEDING RAILWAYS.

There is, 'however, -a passage in Mr Coates’ statement which suggests that the Government is somewhat better dis. -posed towards the maintenance of the railways than it is towards the develop, mont of the road traffic. “Naturally enough in the circumstances,” said the Minister of Transport to an inquirer, “the roads have attracted most valuable freights and passengers from the existing transport -facilities, particularly th e railways, with the result that the roadway finances showed a deficit of £1,400,000 last year. The -financial stability of several' .harbour boards has also been threatened and the rate.-, levied on .the- land adjoining the. harbours has increased from £57,000 in 1926 t 0 ‘loo,°oo_ in. i93Q!.’ ? .All this obviously, is very unfortunate for tinrailways and the harbours, but, as a visitor, from' the Home Country said the other day the stage coaches succumbed • before the railways, and the railways are now -suffering from the motor cars and the lorries.

“WORTHY OF TRIAL.”

The secretary of the New Zealand Transport Alliance- when seen in regard 'to thel 'Government’s proposals, said that the Transport had s hown a desire to obtain the vie we of vehicle operators, on the inauguration of licensing, and that should the same spirit continue ther e would be advantages on both sides in the system of control. The .'Alliance, ihe went on to say, regarded the regulations as experimental and worthy of trial. Experience alone would show what could be achieved by the regulation of goods transport over the longer distances. Th e one vehicle owners d 0 not look so complacently upon the Government's proposals .as do the larger proprietors. They are fearful lest they should be surrounded by rules and regulations that might put them out of their present 'business altogether and leave them with more than they can take up. At the moment there is no indication that this will be thei r fate, but business is only fairly active.

A transitional PERIOD

The Minister of Transport having emphasised the 'fact that a scheme for the oontro 1 of goods transport by road has been drawn up to provide a transitional period by which the transport licensing machinery may be operated with reasonable jurisdiction, the “Dominion” calls attention to the gravity of the undertaking. “While there is general agreement that the huge sums invested in public transport services be economically utilised and protected from uneconomic competition” it says—“much diversity of opinion prevails as to the methods by which this de s irable end is to be attained. Consultation with representatives of all branches of industry ; trade, and transport has revealed to the Government the immense difficulty and complexity oi the problem, and the wisdom of making haste slowly in its attempts to solve it.” This is the pith of th e whole problem by which the Government is confronted. It is a s difficult an undertaking as the adjustment of a Budget.