TRANSPORT LEGISLATION

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 984, 29 May 1930, Page 1

TRANSPORT LEGISLATION

SOME INTERESTING FEATURES REGISTRATION SYSTEM Special to THE SUN WELLINGTON, Today. There are seme interesting features in the transport legislation which will be introduced to the House of Representatives by the United Government during the coming session. The major alteration in the present position as far as commercial transport is concerned will be the change in the registration system which roused opposition last year. The new system of control set up by the Transport Law Amendment Bill will be charged with the registration of all commercial or passenger - carrying vehicles, irrespective of the fare charged or of the distance run. The Motor Omnibus Traffic Act was designed only to provide for the licensing of motor-buses in competition with municipal authorities, and hence its operations are limited to vehicles carrying not less than nine passengers and charging not more than two shillings. This will be changed by the inclusion of other types of pas-senger-carrying vehicles, and the new law will also cover the carriage of goods, which is not provided for in the present legislation.

The machinery which it is proposed to set up to deal with the licensing and regulation of the traffic, is, of course, based upon the American principle of State control by regulation rather than State control by ownership. There will be an effort made to co-ordinate services in the best manner possible, and an appeal board will be provided, consisting of nominees of the bodies concerned and other independent members. Last year’s board included representatives of the Government, county councils, borough councils, and motor unions. This year, it appears, the personnel may he somewhat changed. The Transport Department, which is now hard at work collecting all available information on the subject of traffic, will *tart its operations in earnest as soon as the new law provides the necessary So far, the department has not been able to perform any executive acts, as the failure to pass the legislation proposed last year handicapped it severely. However, th© field of transport is large and complicated, and also, in many respects, virgin. The utmost use has been made of the opportunity to information on subjects which up to the present have not been studied and on which there are practically no data. The Question of the rising toll of the voad, for instance, is one field where the country has little information, and where what information that can be obtained must be gained by long and painstaking research.