Souvenir booklets & turmoil in Tassie

SOME OF US COME BACK FROM TRIPS WITH ACTIVITY BOOKS, OR SIDE TRIP PROMOTIONAL PAMPHLETS.

Issued as an album for 50 colour paste-in cards, for children [1948].

The covers of these two bus trips promotions are both delightful and represent another face of the bus license fights going on in Tasmania.

The first has a rather smart couple wearing a sharp hat and glamorous sunglasses. The later Pioneer Bus pamphlet with a cheerful suntanned couple laughing in fact brings up a difficult time in Tasmania. In 1947 there was a Royal Commission into the granting of bus licenses. One of the bus company representatives reported that… 

He saw the Premier and told him road services were a good proposition for one, but not for two. “I told him that I thought we could pay £300 to £400 each to the Labor Party funds,” said Sullivan. “The Premier said that would be a great help and, of course, payments would be yearly.” Sullivan said he saw the Premier next morning and told him the others had agreed to pay £1800 a year on a basis of £500 from the two larger and £400 from the two smaller firms. He said that in December, 1944, he got some money from the others and took it to the Premier shortly before Christmas. “The Premier told me we would be all right; there was nothing to worry about,” said Sullivan. Sullivan said he made a similar payment in June, 1945. In July, 1945, he said, he pointed out that the Commissioner had bought new buses and appeared to be going ahead with road transport nationalisation. “The Premier said he didn’t know about, it, and he would stop it,” said Sullivan. In December, 1945, he said, he gave the Premier another £900, and a similar amount in June, 1946.

Ansett application 

 In October, 1946, he said, he told the Premier that Ansett Airways had applied for 10 licences, and he and the other operators objected. The Premier said he would see the licences would not be granted, said Sullivan. He saw the Premier later, and told him it was a peculiar thing that Pioneer Tour buses were on the streets before their licences were granted. A few days later Ansett received their licences, he said. In December, 1946, another payment of £900 was made to the Premier, said Sullivan.