H.—35

13

Dr. J. W. Craven, practising at Birkenhead, said that at present the chief difficulty was the transport of patients at night-time, though this also held good to some extent during the day. At night-time, after the last boat had left, the only way of getting a patient to the Auckland Hospital was to take him in the ambulance to Devonport, wait there for the launch coming, transfer him to the launch, take him across the harbour, retransfer him to another ambulance, and thence to the hospital. In cases of serious illness or severe accident this system was extremely detrimental to the patient. There had been some cases where the weather had been all against a patient crossing in a boat. The points he desired to place before the Commission were the delay, the rough weather, and the difficulty in getting patients across. Under cross-examination the witness admitted that at the request of a medical practitioner the Ferry Company would turn out a vehicular ferry to carry an ambulance to or from any of the North Shore boroughs, but it took some time to get the crew together and to get steam up. Mr. S. J. Elliott, barrister and solicitor, practising at Auckland and Warkworth, drew attention to the condition of the roads to the north from Auckland. Large stretches of clay rendered them impassable in wet weather. When the roads were improved a large volume of traffic would come down by the main highway via the northern boroughs to Auckland. The foregoing resume of evidence covers principally the official views of organized bodies, officials, and public men. In addition, a considerable amount of evidence was tendered by private citizens, members of local authorities, and business men having a general interest in the project, and while this latter has not been included in the resume it has been carefully examined and considered by the Commission. CONCLUSIONS. With respect to the several matters submitted to us for inquiry, we have the honour to report as follows : — 1. The present Waitemata Harbour transit facilities. The present Waitemata Harbour transit facilities are provided by a wellorganized fleet of vessels owned and controlled by the Devonport Steam Perry Co., Ltd. The fleet comprises nine passenger ferry-boats and four vehicular ferries. There are landing-places at five points on the North Shore and three on the city or southern side of the harbour, to and from which these vessels ply. Of these landing-places two on the city side and three on the North Shore are available for embarkation and disembarkation of vehicles. The evidence showed that the passenger ferry service in the daytime is very efficient, entirely adequate, and extremely cheap. The passenger-carrying facilities after midnight, however, are meagre, though a small vessel is always kept available for emergencies. As regards vehicle transport, this is carried on to Devonport until midnight, and the regular services to Northcote and Birkenhead cease at 11 p.m., and in the reverse direction earlier. As was shown by a considerable amount of evidence led for the purpose, this causes great inconvenience, even though the Ferry Company guarantees, in the case of a request from a medical practitioner or in the event of an accident, to run a vehicular ferry immediately it can be brought into service after the alarm is given ; and during the sitting of the Commission in Auckland the Commissioners had an actual demonstration of this being done. Nevertheless, the weight of evidence indicated that passenger and vehicular facilities should be provided by a regular service operating continuously throughout the twenty-four hours. Although the present provision for vehicle-transport is adequate under normal conditions, delays occur in dealing with the exceptional week-end, holiday, and Takapuna race traffic. This could be obviated by the provision of additional landing-places and extra vessels ; one additional landing-place and one more vessel would adequately meet the present position. While this additional vessel would