TRANSPORT STALEMATE

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 459, 14 September 1928, Page 13

TRANSPORT STALEMATE

ADDRESS AT REMUERA PLEA FOR UNDERSTANDING Residents of Remuera are apparently satisfied with transport as it affects their district. There was an attendance of only 21 At the Remuera Library last evening when Mr. T. Blood worth, former City Councillor and now a member of the Electric Power and Harbour Boards, addressed ratepayers on the report of the recent Transport Commission. The speaker outlined the history of the tramway undertaking from its acquisition by the council in 1919 until the sitting of the recent commission. He criticised the report clause by clause. “The City Council had tried to convince the public that the Commission recommended a Greater Auckland by amalgamation,” said Mr. Bloodwortli. “The Commission held that it was politically impossible and citizens would not agree to it. The Commission had definitely recommended a transport board as a solution of the present muddle, but he personally was at present against the board because It was recommended that its members should be nominated. He could see no reason why they should not be* elected.

“The parties concerned might have set up a representative committee,” suggested Mr. Bloodw'orth. “Something definite might then have resulted. Jn any case it was now too late to get legislation through Parliament.” Outside local bodies were prepared to accept the general principles of the report, but desired to discuss details with the council with a view to mutual agreement lipon some modifications. That was just what the Commision expected. PANIC PROPOSALS Criticising the City Council’s proposed alternatives to adoption of the Commission’s- report, Mr. Bloodworth termed these “panic proposals.” The Commission’s main recommendation—a transport board—upon which the whole report rested, was not acceptable to the council, yet it now put forward proposals, some of which were expressly ruled out by the Commission, and «others which were rejected by the ratepayers and local bodies. Mr. Bloodworth concluded with an earnest appeal for a real conference wherein all parties nearly equal representation, and stressed the value of the small committee method of arriving at an understanding.