Railways Losing Live-Stock Traffic

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 556, 8 January 1929, Page 16

Railways Losing Live-Stock Traffic

MOTOR-TRUCK COMPETITION POSITION NEAR HASTINGS The competition between tlie railways and the motor-bus companies for passenger traffic is well known, but the general public is not aware of the great inroads being made on the. livestock traffic by the big bus concerns. Mr. J. Elliott, North Island representative on the executive council of the A.S.R.S., told The Sun yesterday that he had just returned from a tour of the Hastings district, waere he had spent several days, and had nad the opportunity to see something of *lie motor-bus and motor-lorry • business that was taking such a large sum annually from the railways.

“I travelled on a motor-lorry. fitted up with an overhead frame similar to a sheep-truck,” said Mr. Elliott. “The carrying firm that owned this truck had six other similar trucks, and by them was shifting thousands of sheep daily from the big sheep farms around the Hawke’s Bay; district, some of which were adjacent to the railway line. These lorries carry from DO to 180 lambs, and the firm in question delivers almost all the lambs required daily by the Whakatu Freezing Works, although no less than 6,500 lambs were slaughtered at the works last Friday.” The lorry on which Mr. Elliott travelled was maintaining a speed of from 25 to 30 miles an hour, from 6 a.m. until after 8 p.m., and was of the “Thornycroft” type. He was emphatic in his opinion that if the Railway Department allowed this sort of competition to continue unchallenged, the livestock traffic of the department was in jeopardy. “In addition to the sheep-trucks, this firm has secured several horse-box frames, capable of housing five horses. These frames can be adjusted in a few minutes and the frames for the sheep discarded,” said Mr. Elliott. It was a common daily practice for these motor vehicles to travel 33 to 50 miles for each load, he continued, and last Saturday the seven lorries travelled 80 miles each, leaving Hastings at 3 a.m. and returning fully loaded with live lsmbs at 4 a.m. the following day. “When the public is ruthlessly criticising the management of the railways, they should, in all fairness to the responsible railway officials, take into consideration the nature of such competition as I have indicated,” concluded Mr. Elliott, “and indulge in a little criticism of a constructive nature, thus assisting rather than hindering the operations of the public service.”