IMPROVED BUS SERVICE

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 576, 31 January 1929, Page 16

IMPROVED BUS SERVICE

VICTORIA AVENUE REQUEST THREE MONTHS’ TRIAL The request of residents of Victoria Avenue and the area along Hobson Bay foreshore for an improved bus service to the foot of the avenue was the excuse for a protracted wrangling at a special committee meeting of the Auckland Transport Board last evening on the topic of private enterprise and community ownership. fJMIE transport manager, Mr. A. E. Ford, had prepared a scheme giving 28 trips daily instead of seven from Mondays to Fridays as hitherto and 14 on Sundays in place of none, and Mr. J. A. C. Allum, chairman of the board, moved its recommendation to the board. He said that the fares would be the same as charged on the trams. The distance was shorter but the grades were more difficult. “These services should be given to private enterprise,” said Mr. E. M. Potter. “Residents should be allowed absolutely adequate services. We should invite application from private persons, and unless we do that we are going to get nowhere.” Mr. M. J. Coyle: Do I understand you to mean that private enterprise is to run on city streets entirely without qualification? Mr. Potter: The services will not affect the trams. Mr. Coyle: It is time we got down to bedrock. These services are not paying. Presuming we can sell to private individuals we stop losing on the buses but immediately lose on the trams. There has been a lot of talk about £40,000 saved on the buses, but we are going to lose £70,000 on the trams. 1 I am prepared to support private schemes if they are not going to affect the tramways. Mr. A. J. Entrican said that if the people saved 11 minutes by -bus on the route in question they were not going to patronise. the trams. We are losing from £I,OOO to £1,500 a year on Victoria Avenue, but at the same time we are not in a position to scrap the service. He favoured the bus terminus at Portland Road. TIME INOPPORTUNE Mr. G. Ashley considered the time inopportune to experiment with private enterprise. That he was strongly opposed to any interference with the board’s service's from outside was the view of Mr. E. J. Phelan. It might be that the proposed service could be made to pay. Any loss that might accrue should be borne by the people as a whole. Mr. Potter considered the ratepayers could not be expected to sanction a loan unless the losses were stopped. Replying, Mr. Allum said the object of the board should be to find what the people wanted and to give them the best service possible. The Victoria Avenue tram line should nevei have been laid, and it was always £ loss, even to the old company. The? should give the trial for the term sug gested. “While I agree with Mr Potter concerning districts outside on control, I feel we must exclude pri vate enterprise within our borders, a

present at any rate. The time ma\ i come when I shall agree with Mr. Potter. I will not be a party, and I do not think any member of the board will be a party, to a scheme that will tend to reduce the conditions under which our men work.” Mr. F. S. Morton proposed the service in question be given a trial for one month olny. Mr. G. Baildon: The people won’t know it’s on in that time. Mr. G. Ashley: If the 600 petitioners don’t support the service within one month they don’t deserve it. The recommendation was adopted, .with the understanding that the serj vice be reported on at the end of a i month.

SECOND POISONING VICTIM.—* message from Inverell states that a result of a cook’s tragic mistake IP putting rabbit poison into the prepared for three rabbiters on January 25, a second man, Patrick foot, has died in hospital. The thir • Claude Donnelly, is still in a critical condition. —A.P.A.