LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 252, 18 July 1919, Page 6

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

THE TERRACE TRAMWAY Sir,—l think it will strike many people ju Wellington that the I'ity Council's proposal .to run another cable tramway up to the Terrace is another wild-cat scheme for gambling with Iho city's money. How can the city contemplate .establishing a new tramway {.reposition, differing from its present electrical overhead wire system, and broken away from a connection with the rest of Hie system, in the light of tho figures which the council is presenting monthly as the result of its JL'Bl)o,otK> iiivestmeir.:' Uue would think that with audi considerations staring them in'the face that new tramway lines, such as the iccentric one suggested, would make rhem pause beforc plunging tho city into another .£IOO,OOO of debt to tap the Terrace at another point, as I do not believe that there will be electric cars running through iielburn south for another live years at tho least. Assuming that I am right in this, the city will in the mean-' time have to pay the interest 'on the money involved in tho purchase of properties, and erection of a sloping track to the Terrace up behind the Albert Hotel. And, that completed-, they will find (as did the Kelbuvn Tramway Company), that the proportion cf people who travel down by the "ars is small compared with those who travel tip. In any case the people that would 'benefit immediately'by being hoisted up to their homes on the Terrace and I'i'unt Street are fow in number, and I >ery much doubt if such a line would p.'iy. In any cas?, Sir. should not a v ote of the rater payers of Wellington be taken before the City Council should'sanction such a cranky lino being constructed? Are there not many more urgent'works needed in tho city before such a queer proposition should be given effect to? What no our newest councillors thinking of to allow such a proposal to be given effect to fin committee) without the whole lhing being thrashed out in the ,ipen? After all, it is the ratepayers' money that is at stake, and they should certninlv know what is going on.—l am, etc., CIVIS.