“GRATUITOUS OFFER”

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 731, 2 August 1929, Page 6

“GRATUITOUS OFFER”

TRANSPORT PASSES FOR COUNCILLORS MR. BLOODWORTH CRITICAL Saying that it was gratuitous of the Transport Board to offer “halffree” passes in transport in Auckland for members of the City Council, Cr. T. Bloodworth last evening criticised the withdrawal of free passes used by councillors. QR. J. R. LUNDON had moved that the council should accept with appreciation the offer of the hoard to provide each councillor with an annual pass costing not more than £6 6s. After a long address by the mover, Cr. Bloodworth mentioned that the councillors once had free passes, by Act of Parliament, for use in the City’s service. Doubt that the Transport Board was elected as in accordance with the Act was expressed by Cr. Bloodworth. He went on to say that the board did not have the right to take away the passes given to councillors under Act of Parliment. He was prepared to test his assertion. The council could, he said, deprive him of his pass hy resolution, hut the board could not do that. By the Act one of the liabilities taken over by the board was the permission given to councillors to have free transport. “The board has exceeded its authority in withdrawing the passes,” Cr. Bloodworth said. “It has not power to discriminate between one local body or another, or between citizens. It must give either a free pass or charge a rate the same as that for any other citizen. “We should not accept its gratuitous offer, as Cr. Lundon proposes. Members of the board are saying that their services to the community are twice as valuable as ours; they have free passes—ours are ‘half-free,’ and in the City’s service. I would rather walk than ride ‘half-free’ at the courtesy of the Transport Board.” Cr. Lundon rose to reply, but a motion that the question be put made by Cr. A. .1. Entrican, seconded by Cr. G. W. Hutchison, was carried and Cr. Lundon’s motion was lost. CHEAP TICKETS FOR ALL CR. LUNDON’S SCHEME LAPSES Quarterly, half-yearly and yearly tickets for use on the trams and buses for the travelling public were suggested to the council by Cr. J. R. Lundon, who asked councillors to affirm the idea and pass it on to the Transport Board. In discussing his motion, the councillor said many of the highly-paid council and Transport Board officials were given the chance of using such tickets at a reduced rate. He therefore could not see why the principle should not be extended to the general public. The motion lapsed for want of a seconder.