THE CARS GO SLOW

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 1, 23 September 1918, Page 4

THE CARS GO SLOW

PUBLIC SERIOUSLY INCONVENIENCED. There was hardly much need to inquire on Saturday us to what the latosft move was oil tho part of the tramway men. In any city thoroughfare trams could have been seen at any part of tho day or evening proceeding leisurely along ;it half, mid sometimes not hull', tho usual speed. The inevitable result was this entire upsetting of tho schedule. The trams maintained a service, hut hardly ono that met the needs of the public- It was almost comical*in tho evening lifter the theatres closed to see great doubledeckers, densely packed with people anxious to reach their homes, trundling along Courtenay Place at little better than a fast walking pace. Tho rat« of progress was such fclin-b anyone could have hopped on' to tho cars between stopping places without taking any great risk of accident. This intensely aggravating method of annoying the public bad an effect not perhaps anticipated by tho tramwaymen, to judgo by the remarks that were heard from the passengers on slow-going cars. The- authorities admit that, the whole of the service was disorganised on Saturday, and tlint the cars were shockingly overcrowded as well at certain times during tho day. Jt. was observed at times that one car, going slow, would hold up half aa- dozen following cars, so that they all had to proceed at the samo slow speed. It is understood that if tho men continue these tactics to-day steps wijl be taken to counter tho movement in a manner that may not hereafter be to the advantage of the men caught deliberately going slow. At a meeting of the Thorndon Branch of the Amalgamated Society of Kailway Servants, held yesterday, the following resolution was unanimously passed: — "That this branch expresses its sympathy with the tramwaymen m their endeavours to get an increase in wages, and that we are absolutely against taking into consideration overtime, and Sundav time, in calculating a basic wage." '