STREET TRAMWAYS FOR DUNEDIN.

Evening Star, Issue 3116, 13 February 1873, Page 3

STREET TRAMWAYS FOR DUNEDIN.

At last night’s meeting of the City Council the following communication, from Messrs O’Neill, Thomas, and Co., of Wellington, was read

The advantages of street tramways having been now sufficiently proved both in America and Europe, it has been suggested to us that similar advantages could be obtained for the City of Dunedin by the introduction of a proper system of street tramways. And assuming that the street traffic of Dunedin may be sufficient to guarantee a fair and reasonable return for capital expended, we would be prepared to undertake the construction of tramways in terms of the General Tramway Act, 1872 ; and wo have now the honor to request your Worship and the City Council to grant us the necessary authority and permission to proceed with the execution of the proposed works. The only privilege we shall require in consideration of the capital, time, and labor expended will be the exclusive right to run on the rails a particular kind of car with flanged wheels; all other ordinary' vehicles, carriages, cabs, carts, omnibuses, may use the rails at all times, with the simple Condition that they shall move off when the rail car approaches, so as to allow it to pass without obstruction or delay. We are convinced that this style of locomotion will greatly facilitate traffic through the stieets, will effect an important saving in the City rates, and will, in fact, prove a boon of infinite value to the City of Dunedin and the public generally. In the event of our carrying out the proposed works, we will be prepared to give to the City 10 per cent, of the net profits which nay arise from the undertaking, after the Company have realised 7 \ per cent, on their capital. We propose to commence operations within twelve months (the rails requiring to be imported) from the date of your granting the authority to construct, and will proceed with the operations without any delay, and complete in the first place a tramway along Oaversham road, Princes street, George street to Hanover street, down Hanover street to King street, thence along King street to the Water of Leith, and afterwards to extend the tramway along other streets and roads wherever they may appear necessary and capable of yielding a reasonable return.

Attached to the application were the following statistics in support of the system The street tramways of Boston carry on an average 50,0f10 people daily ; those of Hiiladelphia carried over 65.000,000 in 1871 ; hardly a city of over 10,000 inhabitants in the United States is without a line of tramways. New Orleans, with a population of 200,000, has 19 miles of double track ; San Francisco, with 150,000 people, over 50 miles; Brooklyn, about 500,000 people, over 100 miles; that the. system had extended to South America, and tramways were now laid in Rio de Janiero, Pernambuco, Buenos Ayres, Valparaiso, and other towns ; also in France, (Germany, Spain, Holland, Denmark, Great Britain,- London (some through very narrow streets), Liverpool, Birmingham, Leeds, Bristol, Birkenhead, Glasgow, and Edinburgh, and other towns in Scotland. Professor Smith, of Sydney, in a recent letter spoke in the highest terms of street tramways, and especially of the new line along Princes street, Edinburgh. 'J he form ©f rail used some years ago in London and Sydney was entirely altered, and the new form or flat rail universally adopted. This improved rail did not offer the slighest obstruction to general traffic, nor present the slightest danger to wheels of vehicles; the rails were laid on the level of the street, and there being no groove, the wheels of vehicles crossing and re-crossing at any angle could not get caught, wrenched, o,r injured. Following the opinions of the Mechanics' Magazine and the Artizan of 1870, on the system, was an extract from Baston’s Summary of Tramways, which said —“On one road the number of passengers carried in one year was eight millions ; only five sustained personal injury : three by jumping off while the car was in motion ; one by sitting on the step of the car, when crossing the deep, open trench of a sewer ; and one by collision with a hook and ladder while standing on the front platform. The shows an average of one injured, in over a million a half of passeuge.risf. • The street tramways of Philadelphia in the year 1870, earned 55,400,920 passengers, and the accidents totted up, one killed and f)ve injured (four of the latter being passengers), or an average of one in over nine millions.”

It was explained by the Mayor, at whose suggestion the matter was referred to the Works Committee, that his own opinion was that a proper system of tramways would be a great boon to the citizens. The promoters have also communicated with the Superintendent, to whom they have offered to lay down their road from Dunedin to Portobello,