TT.—4O

Review op Fares and Charges. Arrangements are in hand for a comprehensive review of all fares and charges made on licensed passenger-services throughout the Dominion, the object being to ensure that the public is receiving its proper share of the benefits that accrue from the licensing system. It is worthy of mention that service cars and omnibuses are now the safest vehicles on the roads. As shown in the table on page 20, the record of these vehicles for the year ended 31st March, 1938, was an average of 14 accidents, involving personal injury per 1,000,000 vehicle-miles run. This figure compares rather strikingly with taxis and rental cars, which showed corresponding averages of 6-9 and 6-4, and which, with the exception of the taxi-services in Christchurch City, do not come under the provisions of the Transport Licensing legislation. Financial Results for Year 1937-38. Attention is directed to the fact that owing to this Report being required earlier this year than usual it lias not been possible to complete the tabulation of the financial and statistical returns which were collected from the operators of passenger-services in respect of their operations during the year ended 31st March, 1938. These results will be published later on as soon as they become available. B. GOODS-SERVICES. Applications dealt with. Table No. 14 in the Appendix shows details relating to the number of applications for various classes of goods-service licenses dealt with by the Licensing Authorities during the year. The following is a summary of the various applications dealt with throughout the whole Dominion during the five years the licensing of goods-services has been in operation : —

1 ' Many of the operators have now been granted licenses for a term of three years. The woods road-transport industry has been in a highly dynamic state during the year, and considerable expansion has taken place as the result of a period of marked prosperity in the internal trade of the Dominion. Co-ordination and Amalgamation of Licensed Goods-services. Broadly speaking, although there has been a tendency towards amalgamations and larger scale operating units, the small scale unit is still the predominant form of organization. The Licensing Authorities have devoted a great deal of time to the problem of the internal organization of the industry because of the close relationship between this matter and the general efficiency of the motor-haulage business. Encouragement has been given to co-operation in the form of associations having for their objective the improvement of the general efficiency of the operators aS a There'is a growing tendency, reflected to a certain degree in the large increase in the numbers of applications for'transfer of licenses, towards the amalgamation of services. Operators, instead of applying for additional vehicle authorities, have been buying existing licensed services which in many cases are closely related to their own. These amalgamations all require the approval of the Licensing Authorities and have for their objective the reduction of empty mileage and the increase of effective mileage.

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Decision. Class of License. Total. Granted. Refused. Withdrawn. Deferred. Continuous — . . ■ • ' _ .. 1,898 118 43 87 2,1-16 1934-35 " .. 2,016 91 25 j 14 2,146 1QS5-36 1,999 56 14 11 2,080 1936-37 •• 1,750 79 47 149 2,025 1937-38 •• -■ 1,699 97 41 35 1,872 "ssir « * > » 1934-35 .. ■ ■ ■ • 89 9 7 3 108 1935-36 .. •• •• 93 4 'i I 1936-37 .. ■ ■ • • 25 1 16 3 4-5 1937-38' .. • ■ ■ ■ 11 I 4 6 j 21 Temporary — 1933-34 .. ■■ 3,793 7 .. .. 3,800 1934-35 7,390 9 .. .. 7,399 1935-36 8,458 31 .. .. 8,489 1936-37 .. 11,141 40 .. i .. 11,181 1937-38 ■ • 10,970 103 i • 11,073 I I