11. :w

Although Your Excellency's Warrant of appointment recites in its preamble the expediency of inquiry into the transport of passengers in the Auckland Metropolitan District, we are required by the more detailed questions subsequently submitted to us to consider and report upon the working and effect in the said district of statutes and regulations (other than the Motor-omnibus Act, 1926) affecting vehicular transport. Under this heading evidence was tendered (we considered it proper that we should accept and record it) showing the effect of the Motor-lorry Regulations gazetted on the 30th day of March, 1927, on the transportation of goods and merchandise within such district. That evidence described, a Master Carriers' Association comprising 106 master carriers operating motorlorries and similar vehicles within the said district. We are also required by Your Excellency's Warrant to inquire into and report upon — 2. The Present and Future Transport Requirements of the said District. The present requirements of the said district may in our opinion be briefly as follows : — (a) The internal transport requirements of a growing metropolis with a present population of about 170,000. This is met at the present time by the usual city facilities in the form of public and private conveyances, comprising facilities for mass transport, such as suburban railway-trains, city trams, buses, and private vehicles. (b) The daily movements of the suburban population to and from the city for the purpose of attending and returning from work and shopping, and attending city amusements. (c) The periodical movements of the population of the outer areas beyond the suburban districts to and from the city for purposes similar to those described under subheading (b). (d) The transport of goods and merchandise to and from the city, suburbs, and outlying districts by means of mo tor-vehicles. The future transport requirements of the said district will be — (a) A mere increase in or multiplication of the present requirements. The city will continue to grow, and the central business area will tend to absorb the suburbs. The suburbs will grow, and will in the process absorb the outlying semi-rural and rural areas. This development will widen the area of the metropolitan transport district and increase the annual number of passengers to be carried. (b) New transport facilities and systems, after the continued growth of the area and the increase in vehicles has reached and passed the saturation-point for surface traffic at the city's central points and at its traffic termini. The recognized method of meeting the problems thus raised are subterranean and overhead tracks, and the pushing-out from the centre of the city of the suburban feeder termini. 3. By what Means may such Requirements best be provided for ? This general question is followed by subdivisional questions (a) to (/) covering its whole scope. We now approach the particular questions submitted to us :— 3. (a) The Adequacy, Efficiency, and Suitability of the Existing Transport System maintained by the Auckland City Council, and other existing Transport Services, as regards Administration, Equipment, Working, and Financial Provisions. We propose, before attempting to formulate our answer, to marshal and describe the most important facts governing this question. They seem to us to be— (A) The system as it exists to-day. (B) The history of that system from the time the City Council took it over. (C) The political aspect of the problem.

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