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public passenger-conveyance services, by any vehicle plying or standing for hire for the conveyance of passengers at separate fares within the said district, and may require the payment of fees in respect of such rights, whether by way of annual fees or otherwise. The provisions of the Motor-omnibus Traffic Act, 1926, shall not apply in respect of any omnibus service within the said district. In particular, the Board shall have power in its corporate name to acquire, hold, or alienate property, to sue and be sued in the Courts, and to be a party to arbitration. In general, the Board shall have power to break up, open, and alter the surface or levels of any road within the district, and to lay, extend, alter, remove,- replace, or relay in any position or situation any existing or future tram system. It shall have all powers necessarily incidental to such general powers, having in view the necessity of interfering temporarily with traffic, roadways, sewers, drains, tunnels, gas-pipes, water-pipes, and such similar equipment of other publicservices. For a detailed statement of such powers as are intended to be included in the foregoing general statement we beg to refer to sections 28 and 32 of the Brisbane Tramway Trust Act, .1922 (Queensland), and sections 53 of the Municipal Tramways Trust Act, 1906 (South Australia) ; and for a detailed statement of the conditions subject to which these powers should be exercised we beg to refer to sections 23 to 36 (inclusive) of the Second Schedule of the Brisbane Tramway Trust Act, 1922, and sections 54 to 66 (inclusive) of the Municipal Tramway Trust Act, 1906 (South Australia). We have included in the definition of services which the Board may run or grant to any person the right to run " vehicles which ply for the conveyance of passengers at separate fares." This is taken from clause 2 of the " Regulations for Public Vehicles " under the New South Wales Metropolitan Traffic Act, 1900. It is designed to meet the competition, harmful but uncontrolled under the existing New Zealand definition of " motor-omnibus," of motor-cars with a carrying-capacity up to seven passengers. These may and do meet ferries and other transport facilities at their termini, and carry passengers, like omnibuses, at separate fares. (See the evidence on this point of Mr. Thomas Smith, on page 233 of the Book of Evidence). He there speaks of such cars operating at peak hours only, cutting out 30 per cent, of the revenue of omnibuses that had paid heavy license fees and were compelled to comply with prescribed time-tables and conditions of running. Relationship to Local Authorities and the Central Government in Traffic Control.— Our recommendation is that the Transport Board be granted power to make bylaws and regulations governing the operation of transport facilities and all matters and things that affect the comfort and convenience of bus and tram passengers, and the safety, fairness, and efficiency of such services in the said district, including an express power to impose a penal fare on omnibuses, to protect tramway revenue ; but that the Board shall have no jurisdiction over traffic control in the territories of the various local bodies comprising its district, from the point of view of the safety and comfort of the general body of citizens as users of the streets and roads: these matters, and the question of co-ordination and uniformity in the relative by-laws, being left to the Central Government and the local authorities, as at present. Adjustment ivith Surrounding Districts which will remain under the Provisions of the Motor-omnibus Traffic Act, 1926. —We have recommended that the Motoromnibus Traffic Act, 1926, shall no longer apply within the said district after the said Board is constituted. If that recommendation is adopted two results must receive attention : (a) New licensing authority(ies) must be appointed for the remaining portion of the No. 1 Licensing District; and (b) omnibus services operating from without the district and running into the said district will, on such journeys, be running partly under the Act and partly freed from its provisions. We suggest that the following provision will remove that anomaly without creating any difficulty or relaxing any necessary control: — " Where any person operates any motor-omnibus service which runs partly within and partly without the said district under terms and conditions imposed by

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