The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET AUCKLAND WEDNESDAY, MAY 28, 1930 BETTER TIMES FOR TRANSPORT

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 983, 28 May 1930, Page 10

The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET AUCKLAND WEDNESDAY, MAY 28, 1930 BETTER TIMES FOR TRANSPORT

BOUQUETS, not brickbats, must be the reward of the Auckland Transport Board. Unlike so many other administrations, it has done what it vowed to do in the quickest time possible. It has run out of a bog of financial loss on to the firm ground of profit with a prospect of better results. Let the board accept and enjoy a fragrant bouquet of congratulation and praise! The good work of the board in its second year of service can be demonstrated best by comparison not odious to the new administration. It held its first meeting a few days before Christmas, 1928, and began its career in an atmosphere of gloom and with a legacy of loss and administrative muddle. Then, the chaotic transport system was losing public money at the rate of £1,500 a week. The City Council had piled up in three bad years losses aggregating over £IIO,OOO. It had no policy of improvement or development of effort. Every district served by buses was more or less discontented. There had been general dissatisfaction with the whole sorry business. Control had to be wrenched out of the council’s hands. The Transport Board undertook the task of at'least attempting to do better for a wide territory exceptionally difficult and expensive to serve adequately with transport. In the board’s first year, although handicapped by a fleet of obsolete buses foisted upon it, made a net profit of £1,400, in even figures. That was a modest start in the right direction. In the second year of more efficient administration the net profit was increased to £B,BBB. This may be described as cutting the figure 8 rather prettily. And the clogging cost of the bus junk has been written off as an extremely bad enterprise. The way is clear to more satisfactory services and, let it be hoped, even more substantial profits. It has to be observed that, in preparing the estimates for this financial year, the Transport Board’s manager has been extraordinarily cautious and conservative. He has budgeted for a microscopic surplus. Perhaps it is better to be sure than sorry, but why so great a lack of faith? Although much improvement in the board’s financial position has been effected, there is no prospect of concessions to the public whose goodwill and ready money on a relatively high scale have helped materially to raise Auckland’s street transport system out of a morass. It will be a long time yet apparently before the people who cannot afford the luxury of a private motor-ear for a trip or two into and out of town daily and many hours’ parking on the City’s by-thoroughfares are rewarded for their use of the board’s trams and buses. Without specifying the date for a welcome reduction in transport fares, Mr. -J. A. C. Allum (who has earned the compliment of his re-election as chairman) lias made it clear that no substantial concessions need be expected within the next decade. It will take ten years to redeem from the sinking fund debentures representing a loan capital of close on one million and a-quarter pounds sterling. So, unless exceptionally fortuitous circumstances aid the board, it looks as if the community will have to be content with a reduction in fares as part and portion of Auckland’s centenary celebrations. In presenting a bouquet, however, no one should reveal the sharp edge of a brickbat in the background. It is a pleasure to have an opportunity to commend the board without qualification for its work. Without efficient administration "the past financial year easily could have been a sorry record. The board had to contend with adverse circumstances and fairly severe competitive handicaps. It fortunately did not blunder on unheeding results. It cut down expenses; it economised; it did everything possible to escape the ignominy of a deficit. And what of the future? There is cause for optimism. The board, representing the whole transport district, is responsible to itself, and does not have to suffer the former loose method of control such as led the City Council into trouble. There is no committee in conflict with a council which did not represent the outer districts. The board knows its own mind and should be better able to know the transport needs of its patient customers. As regards extensions, it is obvious that the day of trams is far from being over. The administration need not hesitate to go forward with confidence in its policy of expansion. A first-class service at a reasonable price will always be popular. It is amazing that there should be any selfish protest against the proposal to run western suburban tramway traffic along Albert Street instead of overloading Queen Street. Plainly, it is the board’s duty to consider Aucklanders as a whole and not merely “mainstreeters.” Moreover, the board is very considerate to Queen Street interests by proposing a traffic relief route on Albert Street. It could hurt Queen Street more by diverting traffic along Hobson Street and Anzae Avenue. Those who protest loudest should pause for reflection on their own best interests.

THE WAIKATO SHOW

UNDEMONSTRATIVE farmers and practical business men alike are finding cause for enthusiasm-at Hamilton, where the rich fruits of a bountiful district have been gathered for their appraisal. Again, and in greater measure, the golden Waikato has earned the right to be known as a land flowing with milk and honey—a land peopled by farmers of the progressive, ambitious type. The Waikato Show, a rural fixture of premier importance to New Zealand dairying and general agriculture, is a valuable barometer of the district it represents and, in the 23 years of its annual existence, a marked development has been shown in both the quantity and quality of its exhibits. This year the industrial community is fully represented, and the total number of exhibits has risen with a hound to more than 4,000. Added interest and importance was lent to the opening of the show yesterday by the presence of Uord Bledisloe, whose personal interest in the function was made abundantly evident. In explaining his position as an impartial administrative figure, he was able to describe himself happily as a farmer with a farmer’s sympathy for his rural brethren—a. “leopard” who, despite political and State responsibilities, “could not change his spots.” Farmers in the Waikato and elsewhere should find inspiration in his Excellency’s assurance that, if the quality of their dairy produce is kept good and uniform, they can quadruple their output in the next few years, and find always a good market in the consuming countries of the world. It is to be noted that this opinion—that of a man of ripe experience—stressed the need of quality, thus supporting the vigorous policy of production improvement put forward at the Auckland Provincial Farmers’ Conference at Whangarei. Again, the faith and optimism of the Governor-General is a timely antidote to the disclosure that the low values ruling for agricultural products have resulted—in a decrease of £1,557,210 in the value of exports in April as compared with those in the same month last year, the deeline amounting to £8,000,000 for the first four months of the year. Undoubtedly this position gives cause for serious consideration, hut it can be faced and countered by a resolute application of the methods advocated by Lord Bledisloe—methods which will overtake, ultimately, even a permanent decline. In the fertile Waikato and elsewhere the means are available, and on the display stands of a worthy show lies the inspiration for still greater effort.