The Press. TUESDAY, JANUARY 13, 1903. "MUNICIPAL CONTROL."

Press, Volume LX, Issue 11480, 13 January 1903, Page 4

The Press. TUESDAY, JANUARY 13, 1903. "MUNICIPAL CONTROL."

In popular elections there is often an attempt to make a catchword serve instead of argument or sound reason. In the election of tha Tramway Board a movement of this kind may be detected at the present time in the way in which the cry "Municipal Control , ' is being bandied about. There is an evident attempt being made in some quarters to make the qualification for a seat on the Board the willingness or the iibility to utter these words as a kind of shibboleth, and to put aside all questions as to the personal fitness tor business capacity of the candidates. W« should like to ask tlie people who- use these words, and want the candidates to repeat them in parrot-form as a profession of faith, exactly what they mean by them. If they m*an that candidates should pledge themselves not to part with the complete control of the trams to any company or syndicate, then we agree with them. If, however, they mean that on no account are they to consider any offers to construct the tramways and work them for a certain time, with an agreement empowering the Board to take them over afttr a reasonable time, then we entirely disagree with tihem. There will ba practically two alteratives before the Board >vhen it it formed. It may proceed to borrow from £250.000 to £550,000 on the security of the rates, construct the trams it-self, and work them on its own responsibility. T!ie drawback to that is that ev<?u tbe abk«t of tbe candidates now before the j public have had no previous experience of either the construction or the working oi electric tram;, and a Board co consticuted is bound to maka mistaken, and cannot rvasonaif.y} be expected to carry out cither the construction or the working i m efficiently Mi«i ewoaeicicftUy v *

company who** busin«*B it is to do such work. The credit of the city under this plan must at, once be pledged to a very hr_'e amount, .uul any deficit on the account for interest and working expenses would have to be made good out of the ratepayers' jxxliets. 'Hie second alternative is to give the work of construction to a company, with an agreement to work she tramways, under which the Board shall have power to take over the tramways after a. certain number of years. Of course, in such an agreement there mustbe .provisions inserted to safeguard the public interests in regard to the fares to be charged, the tiams to be run, etc. The advantages of this scheme, so far as the ratepayers are concerned, are that they would not need to raise any loan at pre.sent, aud that they would be able to take over the tramwavu ax a iroing concern, when their success had been proved, or in tiie event of the undertaking not proving pit ilia'ole. they could leave it in the hands cf tha company. Of course, in return for these advantages the company would expect to he paid some eomi>tnsation. Whether it would he worth -while to engage with a company on these terms, we cannot say. until we know what offers are before the Board. What we do say, and say very emphatically, is that in our opinion, after inviting offers from companies iiud firms in New Zealand, Australia, the United Kingdom, and. we believe, America, the members of the Board ought at lease to be allowed to see those offers before they decide that they cannot be entertained. We do not see what is the use of asking business men to yo on the Board if they are to be leijiihed to pledge themselves beforehand that they will not even consider the offers which have been invited. What is nioie, we cannot understand any business men consenting to go on the Board with their hands so tied.