A LIFT TO THE TERRACE

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 302, 15 September 1920, Page 5

A LIFT TO THE TERRACE

RESIDENTS PLACE VIEWS BEFORE MAYOR " WORSE OFF THAN THE NEWEST SUBURB" , One of the largest deputations which upon any committee of the City Council attended on the Tramways Committee at'tho Town Hall yesterday afternoon to urpo tho construction by tho council of some form of lift or inclined tramway to serve Wellington Terrace, lower Kelbiirn elopes Mount Street, and the Victoria College University. The deputation, which included a large number of ladies, was headed by Sir. John Hutcheson, who read a memorandum (from which the following are extracts) aa expressing their views:— _ "This deputation of residents of Wellington Terjaco" and the .adjacent high levels who for years have interested themselves 111 the question of providing better means of access to and from theii homes, have thought lit to approach the Tramways. Committee before "waiting on the council as a whole, for two reason?— the first being that tho decision of the present phase of tho question has jusi been referred back to your committee; and the second being that your committee has in the past acknowledged its authority and responsibility to deal with this question:' (a) .By persuading the council of the propriety of and need foi this work; (b) by . placing on the estimates on two occasions 6ums of monej for the preliminary work in connection therewith; and (c) ;by procuring legislation to enable the council to construcl and manage the work for the benefit of the city. As ratepayers of the city's earliest settled and. most heavilv-ratec residential area, ,tv« are asking for no ihing more than, do the residents oi newly-opened suburban areas; that is, reasonable facilities of transport betweer our homes and our work. We do not, however. a9k for an electric tramway te pass our doors, a$ we fully recognise that, owing. to the mrtural configuration of our city, such a line would be mosl costly of construction and unremunerafive when done. We' have always, therefore. advocated some other means oi transport, ancillary tti, but entiroly independent of, the city dlectric tramway system. After, /-ears df mature consideration we declare our- firm belief that if on the one hand thii last possible chain of payable line welre mid. or on the other hand, every (single rail were removed- from the 01% streets,! yet wouleJ our reouest remain ' a necessary and remunerative public work. • "On'none of thp occasions on which we have approached the council havo we ever felt that wo w-ere asking a favour, and never have we'come unprepared t< demonstrate the justice and rectitude oi our reouest. For many-years the exDenditure from the'city funds on maintenance (or. indeed, 'any otjier kind oi work) in our neighbourhood has beer microscopic compared with ■ the rates rol lected from us. . . . ®ien ire realife thai in the matter of transport facilities we are infinitely worse off -than the resi dents of distant suburbs ... wo feel ii is high time to protest against the fur ther.procrastination of our work. W< ask for nothing at the expense of the general taxpayer, nor. do we desire t< 6addle the «ty -pith any ''white sle phant.' We claim thnt iio body of citi zens could have done more to thorough ly investigate the soundness of their pro posal than did we before we ever ap prpached, the Ciity Coiincil in 1911. ■ 'On that occasion we submitted facti and figures of "the mast exhaustive kind that cost us considerable time and monej to procure; we were, in fact, potentially ready to carry out the project, had wi ■ onlv had the Jiecessary authority; ane only as a last alternative to the coun cil's refusal to carry out the work ha: any request been made for tho delegatioi to private individuals of the necesenn power. Personally, I strongly believi In the city owning and controlling the •whole of its public facilities. The par ' tlcular scheme we then submitted fa the council .consisted of a- sub-way formed by tunnelling under Church Street hill to a point -immediately /under the pluml of the eastern pavement of the Terrace, from which a shaft capable of accommodating a powerful double-cage electrie 3ift would be sunk to meet the subway With our proposal we submitted, the estimated capital cost of the work, cost o' maintenance and working expenses care • fully computed from date, furnished u< by competent persons; and-to make ou: case as complete as possible, we alsi furnished (with the aid of; four profes fiional tally clerks, whom we engage< for the purpose) an accurate tally o every adult person who passed up ane down Church Street and Dixon Stree Bteps between the hours,of 7 a.m. ane midnight, for one full week (a week-o atrociously bad weather -and continuou rain, and Victoria College at the sam time being in recess) and finally, we sub mitted-even a' proposed roster of 'workinj hours for the staff. Our scheme wa in due course reported upon by the Cit; . Engineer, who very naturally .inflate* our figures considerably; our eetimatei capital cost being £4250, whilst .his wa .£5716. In the oourse of his Teport amongst other things, he said'Ther are no engineering difficulties in connec tion with the_ proposal. The fadvisabil itv .or otherwise of carrying out such i scheme depends entirely upon - the finan cial results obtainable.' Needless t say,_ tho'council chose the safest cours (whitSi also chanced to be the easies one), and decided to take no risk—for i time at least. "Howiever, as a proof of the inheren vitality , and ' soundness of - our. prolect it again came to the front ii a slightly, amended form), and about th. middle of June, 1916, the then Tramwavi Committee.plaied on the estimates th sum of ,£2500 for the preliminary work and recommended to the council th< adoption of the engineer's alternativ scheme. The council, after careful ex amination ofj plans, etc., and' havini heard the engineer's explanations, unani . moufily _ adopted the committee's recom mendation. .As showing that neithe: the committee nor the council had actee hastily, both bodies' reaffirmed thel' • former decision,, and on this occasioi (1917-1918)' increased the sum on the esti mates to ,£4flflo. * "There are several systems in use ii different parts of the wojld for convey ing passengers by mechanical means lii and down steep declivities, and the depu tation is ]>y no means wedded to the par ticular scheme they firstly presented t< the council. The system that now com ,*iends itself to us is that which thi City Engineer found in use in Lo Angeles, California, in the course of hi .recent tour abroad. "Throughout the terms of office o three different Mayors wa have patient ,ly # urged tho justice of ou claims. . . . The time is nohere, and we do not intend to stone mutely by with the oft-repeated promis of relief still unfulfilled, and no immedi ate provision being made for its-fulfil ment. whilst the city is committed t« the expenditure of some If millions oi works (some of which are not inclndei in the schedulo) eis the deliberate ane matured decision of the council. W feel we are Entitled on every principl of reason and justice to the prompt ane vigorous execution of this work. Th plans are prepared 1 , sums of money wen on two occasions voted, the council ha. affirmed and reaffirmed the dosirabiliti of carrying out the work, legislativi power is now on the Statute Book en abling the council to carry out and con £rol Jts workings, and 'we respectful]but firmly ask for an early and unambi guous answer to our question. Wil the council proceed with the work forth with? We know no good and fluffioien reason why the cableway should not b in operation, earning its cost and keep within a period of six to eight months provided the council in real earnest willed it so: and an answer to that effect would be fitting compensation to ow long and patient advocacy of a decade'i duration. Climb T#o Milch for Women. Lady Stout said the climb up to the Terrace was too much for women. Ii thev took th^-Kelburn tram they had tc face a long tramp, possibly against t southerly to thoir homes, and if thej took the other routo they, had to climt cither the Church Street steps (off Boulcott Street) or St. John's sfapg, She submitted that the people of Wellington Terrace were worse off than those in any suburb, Koseneath perhaps ©scented. They hM for a great ran,nv jeara

taxes, but nothing had ever been don® to make access easier to the Terrace. She trusted that Hie matter would be kept continuously "before the council, as it. was a matter that tlio council should attend to. Councillor W. J. Thompson: wondered why the deputation had not come to the committee before. Mr. Hutchcson said that it was one of tho old committals, yet probably the counoil knew little about it. The work was really ancillary to the tramways, still he thought it would be found to be a very resp'ectablo feeder to the 'tramways. They were simply asking for the redemption of a promise. Sir. 'J. D. Sievwright said that the people of Wellington Terrace were "too respectable to ngitate," but they would deputationise the council every week If it would help the matter along:, and thev would all become agitators if tho lift was not undertaken. The Mayor Sympathetic. The Mayor (Mr. J. P. Luke), as chairman of the Tramways Committee, 6aid the lift proposal had come before tho council in 1912, when a private company asked for facilities to construct the work. Ho favoured the proposnl on that occasion. Not long afterwards the war period commenced, and nothing was done. In 191G-17, however, the council had put the sum of on the estimates for tho work, and in 1917-18 increased it to .£4OOO. The typo of elevator was subject 'to'a difference of opinion. He was inclined to believe that an aerial tramway was the best. The council had been looking for n route which would serve Kelburn and take in tho .Terrace. After four or five surveys Mr. Morton had reported in favour of the Daroa Road riute, , which cut out the Terrace. . The council had "turned down" the private company's offer (really an offer made on behalf of Mr. Isaac Salek), and tho whole matter had,been referred back to the committee. They would take the representations of _ the deputation--into earnest consideration, and he believed that the deputation had the right to expect that the opinion would j be favourable. There were no. complica- ' tions in the question—it was one that would not embarrass the council, tho committee, or the ratepayers. _ He hoped that when the engineer did prepare plans of the work it would be one which would benefit the Victoria University, which institution had a district claim on the city.