TRANSPORT SYSTEM

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 October 1939, Page 9

TRANSPORT SYSTEM

CO-ORDINATION WILL GO ON. ECONOMY MEASURES TO CONTINUE. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, October 25. “No, the co-ordination of transport will go on,” replied the Minister of Transport, Mr Semple, when he was asked today whether the removal of the petrol restrictions would mean the relaxation of the economy measures recently introduced for road transport operators. The measures, said Mr Semple, were not entirely the result of the war, but were necessary in peacetime. There would be no undue restrictions, but the whole of the transport system would be investigated by committees set up and now at work. “The idea is to get complete co-or-dination to prevent’waste by unnecessary running and unfair competition,” said the Minister. “That will go on to the maximum. It is a question of a common sense policy of rationalisation of transport. “Some irresponsible persons have been broadcasting in a secret kind of way that this set toward co-ordination means State ownership ultimately. It means nothing of the kind. We arc quite content to allow private enterprise to do the job, but we do want to assist industry to bring about that measure of co-ordination which is necessary in the interests of the transport people themselves and the interests of the nation.

“The objective is co-ordination, which ultimately means real efficiency, and I want to squash the infamous falsehood that this is a step toward nationalisation. It is nothing of the kind.”