TRANSPORT ON SHORE

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 819, 13 November 1929, Page 16

TRANSPORT ON SHORE

TAKAPUNA’S CLAIM FOR CONTROL DENIED DISTRICT EXTENDED The confines of the No. 2 motor omnibus licensing: district are defined by Mr. A. Harris, M.P. for "Waitemata, in a reply to the opinion of Mr. J. W. Williamson, Mayor of Takapuna, concerning’ traffic licensing control in the North Shore boroughs. He denied the correctness of appointing the Takapuna Council the licensing authority for areas outside its jurisdiction. Mr. Williamson was in error in supposing that the new No. 2 district was the same as that formed under the Motor Omnibus Traffic Act, 19215, Mr. Harris said this morning. Under the Act the distinct had consisted solely of Takapuna Borough. It had been completely surrounded by the No. 1 licensing area of Auckland. The No. 2 district had been abolished through a Supreme Court order and Takapuna had automatically been merged in No. 1 district. Order-in-Council created the existing No. 2 district, comprising the boroughs of Devon port, Takapuna, Birkenhead and Northcote, and the Pukeatua, Birkenhead and Takapuna ridings of Waitemata County, on December 21, 1927. This district constituted the whole area served by motor services operating from any point of the northern shore of Waitemata Harbour. "The present No. 2 district is six or seven times as large as the original No. 2 district, of which the Borough Council of Takapuna was the licensing authority,” Mr. Harris pointed out. On the formation of the new district, the Devonport Borough Council was appointed to act temporarily as the licensing authority. At the time there was no legislative power to create one authority for the whole area. That had been done under the additional legislation passed by Parliament last week in accordance with a promise given by the Reform Government when the district was formed. “It would be improper to appoint the Takapuna Council as licensing authority for a district of four boroughs and three ridings of a county,” concluded Mr. Harris.