Buses Allowed to Operate To Queenstown
DECISION OF TRANSPORT DEPARTMENT WELCOMED BY TOURIST TRADE AND SPORTS BODIES In an endeavour to save petrol the Transport Department has laid it down as a general rule that contract trips and conducted, tours by buses should be limited to a radius of 50 miles from the starting point. However, after submissions by counsel and evidence had been heard at a sitting of the No. 4 Transport Licensing Authority in Invercargill last week, the position has now been clarified.
Mr H. Anderson, representing the Transport Department, said he would be prepared to concede that certain companies running such tours and trips in Southland should be allowed to operate in an area south of the Clutha and Kawarau- Rivers, but including Queenstown.
petrol, the union had decided that as many of the teams as possible should travel by bus rather than by private cars. If a 50-mile radius was imposed it would be impossible to send teams to such places as Queenstown, Mossburn, Lumsden, and Tuatapere.
Effect on Ski Club; y Arthur H. Hamilton, a member of the Southland Ski Club, said that last year an effort had been made to open up the Queenstown district snowfields as ski-ing grounds, and a large amount of money had been spent. The national winter sports championship meeting was to be held on the Queenstown fields this year. To impose a 50mile limit would be disastrous to the Ski Club, because most of the members had to travel by bus to reach the ski-ing areas.
The Deputy No, 4 Transport Licensing Authority, Mr E. M. Arnold, said he would reserve his decision in these cases. He stated that the general rule was that contract trip and conducted tour licences should be reducd to a 50mile radius unless good reasons were given why the reduction should not be made. It had been found on the West Coast, for example, that a 50-mile radius was not practicable.
Mr J. S. H. Orr, who appeared for the Railways Department, said that in Southland the department carried out contract trips mainly in the LumsdenQueenstown area. These contract trips Were necessary because there were no passenger train services north of Lumsden or between Lumsden and Gore. The road services were necessary for tourists and sporting bodies such as football clubs. The departiiient was willing to accept a radius of 50 miles.
Decision Mr Anderson said the applicant, Messrs H. and H. Motors, Ltd., had made out a very strong case, and he would not insist on a 50-mile limit being imposed on the company. He suggested that the licences should be amended to permit the company to make trips to any place in Southland instead of to any place in the South Island.
Effect on Football George H. Geddes, secretary of the Southland Rugby Football Union, said that in order to promote Rugby in the country districts .it was the policy of the union to send as many teams from Invercargill . to country centres as possible. In order to economise on
Mr Moller: It depends what you call Southland. Otago claims but so do we.
The parties conferred privately, and it was later announced that they would agree to the licences being limited to the areas south of the Clutha and Kawarau Rivers, with Qu-censtown included.
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Lake County Mail, Issue 46, 21 April 1948, Page 2
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553Buses Allowed to Operate To Queenstown Lake County Mail, Issue 46, 21 April 1948, Page 2
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