Transport Requires Scientific Inquiry

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 57, 30 May 1927, Page 8

Transport Requires Scientific Inquiry

MOTORS AND RAILWAY ECONOMIC DRAG ON COUNTRY (Prom Our Resident Reporter, WELLINGTON, Saturday An impartial scientific investw, - of transport problems, both motor rail, is urged editorially by the way Magazine,” which declare, * among the great public utilities in, 1 Dominion, none is more easilv rt e with once the economic fact.* 411 known, and none deserving of ** tective action more than transtxJ?’ 0 ' “Far greater than the menace tn,v trams, it says, “is the menace to railways which motor competition v produced, and the position cannotT! considered as adequately met mer., by permitting railways to run tk ■ own motors. There is definitely” way which is best suited to supnlv a requirements of each locality route. To test out the relative of railway and motor by close inr tigation of all the factors that making of transport conditions k matter deserving of close attentioC and impartial scientific inquiry ~ "During the last financial "year year in which certainly there was’r! marked expansion in the gross amour? of traffic to be handled in the Domiion, there was an increase of 30 nT. cent, in the number of motor-trucks etc., registered. Facilities for tram-’ port in the previous year was mom than adequate for the country’, needs. “Therefore, it is self-evident that this heavy increase in trane. port capacity was not only wfefc. out warrant, but, by diverting the flow of men and money from its natural direction, that of primary production, into superfluous auxiiiary transportation, has actually been a heavy drag on the country’s economic recovery.”