BUS OWNERS PROTEST

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 968, 10 May 1930, Page 11

BUS OWNERS PROTEST

CANNOT PICK UP FARES ON TRAM ROUTES TRANSPORT BOARD MOVE Private bus operators are taking strong exception to an edict they say the Auckland Transport Board has issued, prohibiting the picking up of passengers from points along the tram routes, even though the penal fare is charged. The Motor Bus Proprietors' Association states that the regulations permit of no such prohibition and suggests a test case in the courts. JN a statement to The Sun this morning-, the secretary of the association, Mr. G. Grey Campbell, said that on April 1 the Transport Board passed a special condition to be attached to the licence of all operating companies. The condition required an undertaking that the operator would not pick up passengers along tram routes or within a-quarter of a mile of the terminus. The Xo. 1 licensing Authority, whose functions have been taken over by the Transport Board, had permitted bus operators to take on passengers, provided the penal fare of 2d was charged. Mr. Grey Campbell said. Under the lormer authority licences were endorsed accordingly. The Transport Board Act prescribed, he said, that all licences issued by the Xo. 1 Licensing Authority under the Motor Omnibus Traffic Act, 1926, for services running within the Transport Board’s district should continue iu force as if the old authority still existed. The Motor Bus Proprietors’ Association has written to the Transport Board as follows:—“At a meeting of the association, which represents all operators who have had notice served upon them, it was resolved to protest against the passing of this condition without calling upon the operators to appear. “The association has received legal advice that the condition is ultra vires. We would suggest, therefore, that the best way would be to have a friendly trial test case, in order that the matter may be properly decided.” Asked if the buses embarked many passengers along the tram routes, Mr. Grey Campbell said that did not really matter, but the point was that if the board were allowed to impose the condition in question it might practically legislate the buses off the road altogether. In reply to an inquiry whether the board had given any reason, Mr. Grey Campbell said there had been none at all. The board had, however, made it clear that if the condition were not observed steps would be taken to prosecute. In fact, one operator had already been served with notice that he -was not observing the prohibition.