THE STATE'S CLAWS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1177, 12 July 1911, Page 8

THE STATE'S CLAWS.

AND THE CITY'S TRAMS. ONEWAY TO GET A GRIP "CONDUCTOR! THE STEP 1" OTHER GILBERTIAN PROPOSALS. A day or two ago the Tramways Committee of the City Council received a "staggerer.' , Inder the Tramways of last session, tho Minister for Public Works is empowered lo is-suo regulations for the control of tramways owned by municipal and private corporations. These regulations have now been framed, and a draft copy has been forwarded to the City Council. Jt is the opinion of these who know most about tho local tramway system that (he proposed Government regulations are unworkable. At all events, if enforced, they would substitute a big debit balance for the surplus, which is now a standing feature of local tramway administration. This opinion is strongly held by tho Acting-Mayor (Councillor J. Smith), who has conferred with the tramway managers upon tho subject. Full details of the regulations are not yet available. Iho Government, for some reason, marked them "confidential" when they were issued. It is reported, however, that some of the provisions aim at a drastic prevention of overcrowding. No passengers , , it is provided, shall be allowed to stand on the top of a double-decker, and no passengers are to be allowed to stand ?o as to inconvenience the conductor in the collection of fares. Anyone who has ever ridden in a crowded traincar will realise that this last provision is susceptible of wide interpretation. Further, every passenger is to be provided with sixteen inches of seating accommodation, a provision that will be difficult to comply with on Wellington s narrow gauge tramways The. seating and standing accommodation is to be shown conspicuously on the dash ot tho tramcar. With a view to meeting the rush for cars at various stopping-places, an- officer is to announce the available accommodation on each car as it ap-proaches,-and-only, the number of passengers for which there is_ accommodation are allowed to be earned. The only possible way to comply with this provision would be to introduce the queue system, and draft passengers accordin" to their destination. Iho available accommodation on. any car is-to be indicated by movable figures on its front, and the regulations further provide that, if these figures show, as a car approaches a stopping-place, that there is room for a ■riven number of passengers, only that number will bo permitted to pass through the gates of the race,.which will.be shut immediately to prevent any more-getting through. "Would-be, passengers arc lo have priority of place according to the time of their arrival at the stopping-places-that is, the queue system will be enforced. , , . ~ \n interesting clause in the regulations provides that, if the step of a car is moro than Hin. from the ground, the car must carry subsidiary steps. Thus, if a passenger wishes to alight from or enter a carfhe or she will call out, "Conductor, the step." The conductor will then have to come forward with the portable step, place it in position, and let the passenger ascend or descend, as desired. ■ ' Other reflations deal in a similarly drastic fashion with further details ot traffic management. Subsidiary steps would have to be provided for more, than half the cars used in AVcllington if the new regulations were enforced. The height of step varies to some extent even in vehicles of the. samo ty|ie. but, broadly spoakine. • there are about 35 palace cars in Wellington which have steps from 16 to 18 inches high.. In addition, there are some, twelve- combinii-' tion cars which have steps of about the same height leading to the open portion of the car. The steps from tho platforms at one end of the combination cars are lower and would not exceed the 14-inch limit of the new regulations. The stops ot double decker and.box cars are all less than U inches high.

OPINION OF THE ACTING-MAYOR. WHY CONFIDENTIAL? Asked what he thought of the new regulations the Acting-Mayor (Councillor ,T Smith) remarked that when they came to the council from the Minister, tney wero marked "contidentia!." Otherwise a Rood deal would have been heard about them before that time. The Tramways Committee, on behalf of the council, had asked the Minister to withdraw the confidential" stipulation, feeling it to be absolutely necessary that the matter should.be thrashed out in.public. Haste was the more necessary as the regulations were liable to be gazetted at any time after July 31. .. To cope with the proposed regulations, Mr. Smith continued, the council would lie forced to' place at least 30 extra cars on the road, with no prospect of any increase in receipts. This meant that, on the basis of the present , fares ,the tramways would be conducted at a. considerable lo>s. The council would therefore be compelled to increase fares in a corresponding degree. In the opinion of the tramway managers, Mr. Smith stated, the regulations were absolutely unworkable. It was unfortunately true, he went on. that the steps on the larger cars used iu Wellington were a little too high, but this was unavoidable under Hie circumstances. The only way to avoid high steps would be to lower the central body of the bigger .cars, and have an internal step at either end of these vehicles.

"It has just turned out as we anticipated when the Tramways Act was payed last year," Air. Smith reni'irked. "Tlio Government are bent on taking away from the people the right' of controlling their <iwn tramways. The' Government; has been talking lor many years of doing something to reorganise and extend the work of local bodies and this is how it does it." One result that must, follow if these regulations went through, Mr. Smith pointed out, was a dual control of streets. If the. Government controlled the tramways they must of necessity crm-! trol those portion* of • the ctrcets in a | town used for. the purpose n{ tramways. Asked what steps the Wellington City Council v,-as likely to take in the mttter, Mr. Smith replied that letters had already been forwarded to the other I tramway centres of the Dominion with | a view to mutual action and probably to a conference being held. The Government would be approached and asked to, at all event's, greatly modify the drastic proposals they had introduced. WHAT A CONDUCTOR THINKS. A tramway conductor, selected at random, was spoken to last, evening rcKardiiig some of .the proposed new regulations. "What regulations are you talking about?" said he. The new ones which the Government have brought down. "Don't know anything about them." Well, if the step of a car is more than H inches from the ground, you have to bring a. portable step on being asked.to do so by a passenger. "What are you really giving, me now?" asked the astonished conductor. The .truth. "Well, it's too funny—ho! ho! Get about with a step!" No; it's quite right. "Well, now, I ask you—how could a conductor take round a step in rush hours? Why. it's' as much as the conductors can do to collect the fares on a palace car in rush hours in the city, and that's the class of car with the high step." What's the height?

"About fifteen or sixteen indies, I suppose." Well, that'* where the step will come in —the conductor's step. "Tt's one thins for the Government to make ridiculous rogu!at?ons, ami another to set tlie conductors to carry thorn out." Then queues hare to be formed at steppins; places. ,„',.., "What's queues? asked the conductor. Tho.'P who wish to vide have to form in a line sr-mohow or other, and enter Iho car in Ilia I order. "N'o. Von don't main that?" Indeed T. do. "Look here, how could that l;e* worked? The ear would lake all day to Ret to the end of its journey. It**- only hy nishins people off «nd on the cars that we can fep to our time-table.