APPEALS ALLOWED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26635, 4 December 1947, Page 6

APPEALS ALLOWED

TRANSPORT LICENSING OUTRAM GOODS SERVICE “I think.that the public interest requires that established operators should not be unduly hedged about by restrictions operating unfairly between themselves, and that an extension of a licence, to which the operator appears to be fairly entitled, may be justified on the grounds of public interest,” states the Transport Appeal Authority, Judge Archer, in his reserved decision on an appeal by Watts Transport, Ltd., Dunedin, against a decision of the No. 4 Transport Licensing Authority. The appellant had sought to deviate on an area four miles south of the Allanton-Woodside road. “The appellant in effect-asks for a limited extension of the area of his operations at the Outram end of his service to offset the grant to his competitors of the right to extend their general cartage operations into* Dunedin,” the judge said. ‘ln view of their recent successful claims to be allowed to share in the route service which was previously the sole prerogative of the appellant, I am unable to see that the objectors have any moral right to complaint of the appellant’s desire for a modest extension of the area of his operations into what was formerly their preserves. I am of opinion that the full extension sought by Mr Watt is too wide. The appeal is therefore allowed to the extent that the appellant’s licence is extended to include, in addition to the route and areas already covered, the area within a radius of four miles from the Post Office at Outram. Further Appeal

The judge has also delivered his reserved decision on an appeal -by R. A. Henman, Dunedin, against the decision of the No. 4 Transport Licensing Authority, when it refused to grant him an additional vehicle authority to enable him to undertake the increasing timber cartage of the Southland Sawmilling Company, Ltd. Allowing the appeal, the judge gave the opinion that it would not be' proper for the company to seek to influence its customers to avail themselves of the appellant’s services in preference to other carriers.