The Sun TUESDAY, MARCH 27, 1928. SEEKING A MONOPOLY

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 314, 27 March 1928, Page 9

The Sun TUESDAY, MARCH 27, 1928. SEEKING A MONOPOLY

IF a sense of humour had been active at the meeting of the No. 1 Bus Transport Licensing Authority yesterday there would have been as much merriment as over a Gilbertian farce. To begin with the Authority itself happened to be the Auckland City Council. Its main duty was to consider an application from its own tramways department for permission to run motor bus services along the new waterfront road from the city to the model suburb of Orakei. No decision was made because nobody in authority was anything like ready to make a decision. The question was deferred for three months, by which time probably some one will be able authoritatively to tell the Authosity what its transport department wants and what it intends to do. Thus the occasion was simply an opportunity for getting in early with an application for the right to maintain a bus transport monopoly when conditions might proffer a chance to make easy profit. The departmental applicants naively explained that they would 'submit in due time essential details of the proposed service. When the road had been opened for traffic then the Licensing Authority (which, as the City Council, must devise the department’s policy), and the public would be told the scale of fares.

No at the meeting appears to have laughed at the farcical situation. Legalised transport piracy has become so common that its exercise is not expected to provoke comment. It is true that an objection to the tramway department’s application was lodged on behalf of private enterprise, but that also was merely funny—a formal farce. This objection certainly represented a splendid optimism, which ought to deserve a better fate than the destiny to which it is doomed. Who is simple enough in the community nowadays to believe that private enterprise has any chance at all against a form of State and municipal socialism which, if advocated or practised by the Red Socialists would precipitate the mobilisation of the New Zealand Navy and the Defence forces? It is not to be anticipated that the No. 1 Licensing Authority, in a moment of aberration, would forget that it also is the City Council. However, there is in the private company’s objection a nice point or two for lawyers. If the tramways department be determined to run buses on the new waterfront road and other highways skirting the eastern deviation of the Main Trunk railway, the ratepayers reasonably will want to know the prospects of the service. Does the department hope to run such a bus service without a loss ? It is well known, though not yet authoritatively confirmed, that the tramways department will close this financial year with a bus loss of not less than £30,000., Would the prospective King’s Drive-Hobson Point-Orakei service add to the losses or help to diminish the lamentable deficit on the city’s municipal buses ? Other questions spring to attention. Special consideration will have to be given to the style of bus to be run on the waterfront road. Open windows for the gentle breezes from the Hauraki Gulf or sedan buses for guarding against the sewage outfall? And finally there is the question of the new railway services. Has not something been said in the past about the Railway Department inaugurating fast electric trains on the eastern deviation as soon as practicable after the completion of Arapuni hydro-electric scheme ?

WOMEN IN MEDICINE

rE agitation caused in England by the ban of five great London hospitals against the admission of women students is developing into a spirited sex argument, wherein the rights of women are being vigorously championed not only by themselves but by many men. Interest is lent to the controversy by the decision of the Senate of London University to conduct an inquiry into the ban, by which means the question should be thoroughly analysed. To the unprofessional observer, it is difficult to know why women should not study medicine in association with men. Sex should not obtrude itself in such work. A new world has given women equal rights with men in the professions; a new Britain is granting women the full franchise, thus admitting the equality of the sex. How incongruous, therefore, that British hospitals should ban the woman student! That there is a need for women doctors cannot be denied: they fill a very real place in the community, and it is highly probable that, as women have proved better nurses than men, owing to their greater sympathy and insight, they may prove better diagnosticians than men, particularly with women patients. The result of the controversy will be awaited with interest, but it is not at all likely that women will permit themselves to be barred from the medical profession, whatever the opinions of male medical authorities may be.

ANOTHER CONDEMNED BATH

“TURBID jind colourless water, containing earthy matter, and 1 showing signs of considerable human pollution.” So reads the report on samples of water taken from the Mount Eden baths. “By no means satisfactory,” comments the Health Department, which indicates its opinion that more frequent cleaning of the baths is necessary.

But the Mount Eden baths are continually being cleansed; they are emptied, scrubbed with hot water and caustic soda, and then refilled from the city reservoir. The caretaker hints that the water complained off may be just the same in quality before it leaves the city reservoir—at least he suggests that a sample Should be taken from the reservoir to see whether analysis will yield the same results.

But the Mount Eden Council is not bothering about attaching blame to anyone for the cause. It sees the effect, and is ready to remedy it. Last evening the council decided to ask its Baths Committee to report on the installation of a filtration and heating plant, at an estimated cost of £2,193. Such a plant would prevent any accumulation of slime in the baths, and would also enable patrons to bathe all the year round. The ratepayers should have no hesitation in authorising a loan for the purpose, for the additional revenue derived from increased patronage should easily meet the interest on £2,000.