TRAMS TO SUBURBS?

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 59, 4 December 1918, Page 4

TRAMS TO SUBURBS?

AND COMPETITION WITH IUIL-.. WAYS. The suggestion thnt the City Council of Wellington should be allowed to run trams out into the railway suburbs even in competition -with the New Zealand Government railways has been made once or twice by members of the House of Representatives during this session, since they nlfo made the discovery that this city is overcrowded. Yesterday Mr. 11. "G. Ell asked the Minister of Railways a question on the subject. He asked whether, in view of the congestion of tlio population in Wellington, the city authorities should not be allowed to run trams into the more remote suburbs in order to distribute the population. Would the Minister allow the city to run drams into the Johnsonrille district and so open up a beaufiful area for residential purposes? The Minister said that it would bo wiser for the honourable gentleman to give notice of the question. It would thon be possible to see whether there was in fact any Act preventing the City Conncil from running trams to Johnsonville. Under the Ilutt Eoad and Railway Act, passed before he became Minister, the city was prohibited from running teams on that road, and he would have to consult his colleagues before he lcoiild agree to any change in that legislation.