WELLINGTON'S TRAMWAYS. The "People's Control" Methods.

Free Lance, Volume III, Issue 109, 2 August 1902, Page 8

WELLINGTON'S TRAMWAYS. The "People's Control" Methods.

THE question as to whether the Government should control the Wellington municipal tramways is a simple one. Everybody seems to be agreed about that and the general answer to the question is a decided "No!" We don't know how the Government would run the tramways of course, and we don't know whether Northern members would worry about this city's traffic or quarrel about the proceeds. We claim to know something about the way the City Council runs its tram service ; for, like the rest of the public, we have frequently ridden in the cars. * * • " The people control the tramways at present," said the Mayor. The people would control them, too, if the Governmenb ran them. But the people share the ha'pence now, and that's a good reason for the system to remain unchanged If the people get the ha'pence, they get the kicks too. Some of the fortunate "owners " of the cars, wiiose experience of trams is bounded by the lurching vehicles that convey a quarter of the city's population to its daily work, may be satisfied with the people's control of them. ■*■ ♦ * There are probably no cars known to the travelled citizen of Wellington on which the people experience so much inconvenience. No City Council would permit privately-owned cars to carry a load and a half of passengers. This is constantly done in Wellington. The inspectors who assiduously snip your tickets to prevent the guards (that is the Council) robbing you of your twopences, don't control the cars. They cannot. They dare not ! • » • We have seen a couple of Councillors, who travel free, hanging on by the iron rails while the horses were making heavy weather of it up Cuba Street. They are part owners of the tram. So are you, but you pay your twopence. If the Councillors who travel free saw that the trams were not horribly overcrowded, they would be certainly entitled to the benefit. * * * The trams do not run to time. This is everybody's fault, everybody being the owners. The system of passes is aggravating, and is Wellington's system. It is reasonable to assume that if the Government took control of the tramways of Wellington that the discomforts of travelling would be minimised. As the Government is not likely to take control, and as the control would be possibly unpopular, isn't it a fair thing for the City Coun-

cil to do something to help weary travellers between Thorndon and Newtown 9 * • • The Council's employees unawdably break the Council's bye-laws several times a day by overcrowding their vehicles. Nobody interferes and nearly everybody is annoyed at the suggestion to run them as a Government concern. The suggestion may have the effect of spurring up the City Council to the needs of the people and by minimising the crowding may reduce cruelty to animals, and inconvenience to the public that exists.