STREET TRAMWAYS.

Auckland Star, Volume VI, Issue 1672, 28 June 1875, Page 2

STREET TRAMWAYS.

(To the Editor of the Evening Star.) Sir, —Street railways being jast now the allabsorbing topic permit me to give those interested a few facts on the subject. In the first place as to the great bugbear of hills, an outlet can be obtained out of Aucklandsay Wellesley-street —with a grade of one in about fourteen. Cars are now, and have been for many years past, running on streets in San Francisco, Cmcinnatti, Philadelphia, and many other cities with a grade of one in nine This fact ■will, lam assured, be borne out by many of your citizens who have travelled on the routes. .As to the rails being an obstruction the fact is they are rather a benefit than otherwise, the rail being virtually a flat piece of iron laid flush wibh the street, no groove, the wheels of the cars being made with a small flange on the inside edge, which runs along the inside of the rail, and has sufficient power to present the wheel from leaving the track, or if it does get off it is simply and instantaneously put on again. Of coarse round the corners the tail does project slightly above the street, but to no extent, and this is always at right angles with the- street traffic. The line of track, together with the crossings, are kept in perfect repair by the Company. The cars are built of the most approved pattern, being light, well ventilated, the convenience and comfort of passengers being studied in every particular. The cars are fitted with powerful breaks, and are worked with the utmost simplicity, in short they are the most cheap, comfortable, convenient, and safe transit known, and in those particulars, as much excel the present "busses" as the " busses" do the old style bullock waggon in use 21 years ago. As to speed—there being less friction on a smooth surface, one horse will pull more aDd travel quicker than two horses will in the present style of busses. People will travel in cars whe"n they will not in busses ; for instance I see by a report before me that whilst in London with its population of 3,000,000 inhabitants, only 45,000,000 people travelled by the omnibusßses; in New York

with a population of only 1,000.000, tn* street carß carried over 130,000,000 peoplein the same year. , One company in Boston averages Over 50,000 persons daily, and in Philadelphia over 80,000,000 passengers are carried annually in the street trains. San Francisco, with its population of abou' 200,000 inhabitants, has nearly 150 miles street railway ; in fact the same is the perience of every city, both in America ; ,d t" urope (except Sydney), where they huve had a fair trial; in Liverpool, lam informed that the success of the system waa so marked that the powerful 'bus interest had to succumb, and, for their own salvation, had to resort to street railways. To say that Auckland has not a population sufficient to support a line of street carß is to argue against the experience of every city that has already given the matter a fair trial. If there is traffic sufficient to support several lines of 'busses, and enable the proprieters to grow rich off the profits, What, in the name of common tease, is there to prevent a line of cars that can be run without expense, and give a great amount of satisfaction from paying and paying well; for the sake of the place, •I do trust your Auckland capitalists will see the desirability of taking hold of this matter themselves, and not allowing foreign capital to absorb every paying institution in your midst. I trust the ball will be kept rolling until the Street Railway is an actual fact, and the authorities be made to see that delay will no longer be tolerated by the people, the vested interests to the contrary. —I am, &c, W. E. Turner.