MOTOR VEHICLES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 November 1941, Page 5

MOTOR VEHICLES

REQUIREMENTS FOR HOME DEFENCE NEEDS OF ARMY & OTHER SERVICES. WAIRARAPA CONTROLLER OUTLINES POSITION.

An outline of the main duties of the Wairarapa Motor Vehicle Advisory Committee was given this morning by the Controller, Mr P. F. Fagan, of Masterton.

First of all, said Mr Fagan, the committee would select suitable types of motor vehicles for the use of the armed services in the event of an extreme emergency. Secondly, it would select and allocate vehicles for the use of the Lines of Communication Company, under Capt. D. B. Curry, and thirdly, allocate transport for E.P.S. and civil requirements in the Wairarapa district. Motor lorries, trucks and motor cycles were the vehicles concerned at present.

The committee, Mr Fagan went on to explain, had already held a number of meetings and had made selections of suitable types of vehicles for army services and a list had been forwarded to the Controller of Transport] Shortly, the Transport Department’s vehicle inspectors would be carrying out an examination of the vehicles recommended for selection, after which the owners, in cases in which the vehicles were approved foi’ use, would receive notices of intention to impress the vehicles. Owners had the right of appeal within seven days to the Transport Licensing Authority (Mr Skoglund). The Minister of Transport, said Mr Fagan, had made it clear to the owners of vehicles that only in the event of an extreme emergency would their vehicles be impressed. Until such an event occurred, if it did occur, the vehicles would continue to be used for civil purposes as the owners desired. Though there was a right of appeal, the Minister had invited owners, in the interests of the country’s defence, to make the least possible use of this procedure.

Schedules of the vehicles suitable for the Lines of Communication Company and the E.P.S., said Mr Fagan, were being furnished by the respective organisations in the district, and these would receive consideration by the' committee in the near future. It was hoped that motor vehicles for the use of the Lines of Communication Company and the E.P.S. would be obtained voluntarily, by offers of owners to place their vehicles at the disposal of these units for use in practices, as well as in case of emergency. Provision was made for owners to be compensated for any expense entailed. Mr W. L. Marchbank, Masterton Woollen Mills, has been added to the committee as a representative of business interests.