“A GRAVE MISTAKE”

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 851, 20 December 1929, Page 18

“A GRAVE MISTAKE”

INCREASE IN CONCESSION TRAM FARES LABOUR COMMITTEE PROTEST Holding that the Transport Board’s recent decision to increase the price of concession cards was “a grave mistake” as it bore most heavily on the workers, the Auckland Labour Representation Committee passed a resolution last evening asking the board to reconsider the subject. The committee’s resolution, sent to Air. J. A. C. Allum, chairman of the Transport Board, is as under: “We consider that should be reduced instead of increased, as this would popularise the service and be of benefit to those who live in the outer suburbs. We ask the board to give serious consideration to the desirability of adopting the following: (1) "That the price of concession cards for one, two, three, or four sections shall be as formerly, and that the maximum cash fare shall be fourpence. (2) “That between the hours of 10 a.*m. and 4 p.m. from Alonday to Friday inclusive, clfeap fares slutll operate for the purpose of popularising the cars during slack periods and of relieving the congestion which occurs during rush hours. “We further desire to express our opinion that the most important essential is not that the service should show a profit, but that adequate and cheap means of transport should be provided for all the community, and that if a loss is shown, if and when the above suggestions are carried out, it should be covered by a rate payable by all residing within the Transport Board area. “We also believe that at the earliest possible moment the hoard should be elected by the people, the Parliamentary franchise to be the oxily qualification for electors, and that it would be in the best interest of the service if the tramway employees were represented upon the Transport Board.”