“HUMBUG AND NONSENSE”

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 593, 20 February 1929, Page 6

“HUMBUG AND NONSENSE”

TRANSPORT BOARD’S DISCUSSION MEMBERS’ PLAIN-SPEAKING There was some more plain speaking when the Transport Board met yesterday afternoon. The chairman, -Mr. J. A. C. Allum, said it was time the business of the board went forward without the supply of humbug and sheer nonsense that had characterised some of the discussions inside and outside the board room. The question under discussion was the granting of authority to run services dealing with Ellerslie or the earby areas. There were two applications—one from Mr. J. Collett, who has been in the limelight for several years, and the other from the Passenger Transport Company. Mr. Collett desired to run a service from the junction of Marua Road ; nd Ladies’ Mile, along Ladies’ Mile, Peach, Parade, Green Lane, Clonbern 3toad, and Remuera Road, into the city. This conflicted with the Passenger Transport Company, which wanted a service giving tiiem a terminus at Lake Road, Lllerslie, and proceeding into Ellerslie township, up Ladies’ Mile, and via Peach Parade and Green Lane iuto Great South Road and the city. TURNED DOWN After considering Mr. Collett’s application, the board decided that his previous activities, as a result of which the Appeal Board had decided that he was too irresponsible to run a service, hid not make it desirable again to trust him with a service, and his application was turned down.

The tramway manager, Mr. A. E. Ford, objected to a service running through Peach Parade, which was w ithin reach of the Remuera tramway. The chairman moved that the application should be declined, but that the

company should be offered a service starting at the junction of Marua Road and Ladies’ Mile, into Ellerslie, thence via Panmure Road to the Great South Road tram terminus, and into the city. The company had indicated that it preferred the Lake Road - Ellerslie - Ladies’ Mile - city service, but were prepared to run the other to get a terminus in the Ellerslie district. ROD FOR OWN BACKS *‘We are merely making a rod for our own backs,” was the comment of Mr. P. S. Morton. ‘‘lf the service is in our tram area, we should be able to run it ourselves. If we go letting private enterprise in, we are going to be in the same position as wo were when the private competition first started.” “Do we ever know where we are ?” asked Mr. M. J. Coyle. “First we hear that private enterprise is everything that is wonderful, and that they should be given a chance. Now that we are prepared to give them a chance, Mr. Morton turns round and says we are still wrong. Surely we can’t be wrong in both cases. “Both Mr. Morton and Mr. Potter go outside the board and say that the board is the same as the City Council, :md the moment we try to meet their desires we are in the wrong again.” Mr. E. H. Potter replied with some heat. “I say that it is in the outside areas that we should let the private enterprise do things,” he remarked. The balance sheet of the undertaking did not correctly show the losses that had been suffered, he went on. If the accounts had shown the position correctly, there would have been much larger losses. T-lis position was quite clear. Ho said let the outside districts go to private enterprise, but let the board do the job in tho tram area. HUMBUG ABOUT TRAMS

Mr. Allum said that if there had been any humbug talked in the city during the past couple of years, it had been over transport. He had kept himself under control for a long time, but the time had come for plain speaking. He had always done his best to give tho private companies a fair deal, and he was away in England when the Omnibus Act was p.assed. Now every member of the board was st trustee for the ratepayers in an undertaking valued at nearly £2,000,000, and their only duty was the protection of the undertaking. T am sick and tired of this ridiculous humbugging nonsense I hear,” he remarked. “The private companies must have a fair deal, but the ratepayers own a huge undertaking, and Hie board’s first duty is to look after it. I hope wo are going to hear less about private enterprise. The board lias abandoned big areas, and I have bad a plentiful share of abuse for letting it go. The board will even find that there is one local body going behind its back trying to have its decisions thwarted. The motion gives justice to the company, and protects our interests. What more is required?” „ .. The motion offering the alternative service to the company was passed.