TRAMWAY BOARD ELECTIONS.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18237, 22 November 1924, Page 7

TRAMWAY BOARD ELECTIONS.

LABOUR CANDIDATES' ADDRESSES. Labour candidates for the Christchurch Tramway Board election next week addressed an open air meeting last night at the corner of Colombo street and Lawson street, Sydenham. Mr H. T. Armstrong, M.P., who acted as chairman, deplored the fact that there was as a rule, so little interest taken in the Trapiway Board election, as the Board was perhaps the largest employer of labour in the city. The' Labour Party, he said, had decided to run six candidates for seats on the BoardMessrs .Clyde Carr, G. T. Owen, J. McCombs, C. Eenn, and Rev. J. K. Archer, ior the Central "Ward; and F. E. Cooke for Spreydon.

Mr Owen said that the United Burgesses' Association had tried again and again to get the Board to run excursions to the seaside. The Board at last acceded to the request, and ran the trips from various termini to the resorts. . The excursions were run in September, and were discontinued on the ground that they did not pay. He maintained that'if the excursions were to be run during the summer school holiday they would undoubtedly become so popular that they would return a good profit. Mr Owen criticised the Board for not endeavouring to mitigate the dust nuisance on the streets, suggesting that it should use emulsified oil for the purpose. He thought the Board should apply more comnion-sense knowledge to tramway matters instead of relying so much on statistics. Mr Carr said that the Labour Party was not in favour of extending the system beyond its present 'limits, being of opinion that motor buses would meet the position much better, because they were less costly to run. He thought that the present means, of electrical locomotion would be superseded in the near future. Railless cars and storage battery cars would before long, he felt sure, be considered better systems than that in use at present. Although the Christchurch tramway system _ was claimed to be.the best in the Dominion, it wa3 a fact that the wages paid to the employees were quite the lowest in the Dominion. (A voice: "And the fares are the highest,") The position was the more glaring, pontinued the candidate, when it was remembered that with the exception of the tracks on the Cashmere Hills the whole system was run on level ground, and that the cost of electricity was so low as compared with that in other centres. The Tramway 'Board did not, he asserted, represent the interests of the workers, being in fact a close corporation. He hoped the working people would .take the trouble to register themselves on this occasion.

Mr Cooke said that the Board had been making serious mistakes ever since it had been elected! He referred to the loan of £380,000 raised by the Board to carry out certain "works, stat* ing that, owing .to leakage or to some other trouble, the. money had been found insufficient to complete the work. With regard to motor bus competition, he asked why, if private enterprise could run such buses profitably, the Board could not do likewise. He advocated railless cars for certain parts of Christchurch, pointing o'ut that such a system was now in operation as close at hand as Wellington. The Labour Party, he said, was up-to-date and progressive, and he considered tliat\ it should be given a chance to conduct the tramway business of Christchurch. The present body was far too conservative, and should be put out of office.

Mr McCombs said that the Labour members stood for the users' interests as against a policy of piling up reserves for. posterity. The present Board had increased running costs, and at the same time reduced the number of passengers. On the Christchurch system last year 25,000,000 passengers were carried, whereas in Wellington 37,000,000 were carried, and in Auckland 55,000,000 were carried. The power costs , of the four New Zealand . centres were for the car miles run as follows: —Wellington, 4.02 pence; Auckland, 3.73 pence; Dunediii, 1.66 pence; Christchurcsh, I.OS pence.. He claimed that neither the Labour Partj nor anj other body of men could make a greater mess of the tramway system than the present Board, which

had increased the capital expenditure and at the same 'time reduced the output, or, in other words, the number of passengers carried. He advised the voters to go to the hall next week with the motto: Tramways for use, not for profit; a tram service to serve the maximum number of people. There was no reason why the people of Cliristchurcli should not have a cheaper service than in Dunedin, where 15 rides could be had for a shilling.