TRANSIT TO PETONE

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 244, 9 July 1919, Page 8

TRANSIT TO PETONE

BETTER FACILITIES WANTED

THE TRAMWAY QUESTION

DiSCUSSIiD

The all-absorbing topic <;f transit facilities is ever present in iho minus uf I'etone unu jjjwer Unit residents, and last evening a. puulic meeting to uiscu.-i.-j tne question wiw held at l'oione. Thu Aiayor of JMone (Mr. J. \V. ii'Enan) presided over a. fair attendance. Air. lU'Ewan bawl that the fetono Council had fallen into line with ttio Lower Mutt Council in the matter of sending a deputation to tho Minister <-f Railways, and the question to be discussed that evening was whether any further action should be taken to liavo the embargo on the laying of a tram track on the Hutt lioaii removed. Mr. M'Ew.in said he thought that when the session opened there would be no difficulty iu having Ihis embargo removed. A question for those present to decide was whether, in tho event of the embargo being removed, they favoured the laying down of a tram track on the road.

Mr.' Powell said that he did not think that a tram service to I'etone and the Hutt would'be a paying proposition. It might pay as far as Kaiwarra, but they had to consider a large tract of about five miles of read from Kaiwarra onwimls which would be non-revenue producing. As far as he couM see, the only practical way to run a tram service was for the Petone and Lower Hutt boroughs to amalgamate with Wellington City. There would, of course, ct ill he a loss,, but the City Council would have to pay l the piper. Councillor Brocklebank said .'he was not in favour of a tramway line being laid down. He thought more- upod would bs done by improving the Hutt Road itself. The present train time-table was not the normal lime-table, and he thought big improvements would 1)6 made to the existing train service long 'before any se.heme for tramways could l>o carried out. With reference lo the suggestion that a tramway service would bring an increased population to the '■''alley, Councillor. Brocklebuik raid that what was keeping the population from spreading was not the lack of transit facilities, but the high cost »f building materials.. Not until some of the more essential building materials had decreased in price would any extensive building take place out there.

Councillor Bedingaeld said that he would move that a deputation from Petone be appointed t.o net in conjunction with tho'deputation from the Hutt. Ho viewed the periodical cutting down of the train services as a very serious matter.

Councillor Churchouse said that there was nothing new in the proposal to establish a tram service to the district. Hβ thought that for some time past the Mayor of Wellington had had. a" great dream of amalgamation. He (the Mayor of Wellington) could see in tho future the great! city of Wellington extending from Cook Strait to the Himntakas. Councillor Churchmise said that he thought the first step in any amalgamation scheme should 1-e the amalgamation of Petone and Lower Hutt. He thought that a tramway service along the Hutt Road would pay. There was a large amount of motor traffic, too, from the Hutt Valley along the Hutt Eoad. A tramway service would carry a large amount' of the freight and goods which were at present brought out by motor vehicles. He thought- the carriage of goods would enable a tram service to pa'y. Councillor Brocklebank said he thought that the first thing to bfl done was to liush on with the hydro-electric scheme. Kntil they had plauty of electric power there would be trouble nith. any proposed Irani scheme, Mr. M'Ewan Kii'l that tf present he could see no possibility of Petone, even working in conjunction with Lower Hutt, having a tramway system rf its own. They would have to look to the city for nnv I ram service to ;> etone, and at present the citv had (ill its work cut nit to provide sufficient power to'maintain it= own tram sen-ice.'.

It wat eventually decided that a deputation l>? appointed to work in conjunction wil't n similar deputation from th« Lcwpr Hutt In approach Cabinet and ask for the removal t.f Ihe embargo at present existinz. ■ '