Contrasts on Wheels

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 216, 1 December 1927, Page 10

Contrasts on Wheels

BICYCLES AND AUTOMOBILES City Council Report, 1896 Pattern JX 1896 there were 490 bicycles in Auckland. How do we i know? Because in those days bicycles had to be re? ls ' tered, even as automobiles are registered in these enlignTened years, and their registration was one ot the tug jo us handled annually by the city traffic department.

'T'HIRTY-OXE years ago, almost to a day, the executive officials of the Auckland City Council were preparing their annual reports for submission to a body of aldermen harassed by no such considerations as losses on buses or the moral effect of privatelyowned baths at Point Chevalier. The council in those days was headed by Mr. J. J. Holland, as Mayor, with Mr. P. A. Phillips the town clerk and Mr. W, Anderson the city engineer. Even in the relatively brief span of Auckland's municipal existence, 1896 does not seem remote. By that time the city had outgrown the swaddling elothes prepared for it when the first land sale was conducted in 1840, and was marching along the highroad to eminence. Yet in 1896 the chief traffic problems of Auckland were centred on

bicycles. Electric trams were but a whisper, and motor traction the dream of a visionary, Otto Daimler, whose experiments were mentioned condescendingly in the Press of an era still dependent on the horse. In 1596 the activities of the city traffic inspector were easily summarised in eight entries of figures. Hac/ ney and borough stage carriages numbered 171, there were 268 caj-ts plying for hire, and private carts, which were also registered, totalled just over 500. There were registrations of conductors, drivers, porters, bicycles—and trams, the trams being horse-drawn conveyances, 33 in number. It was just twelve months earlier, on November 21, 1895, that Mr. James Stewart, civil engineer,. advanced the first tentative offer to promote electric tramways in Auckland. After prolonged negotiation the offer was accepted—a development that was announced officially in the report under

review —and thus were set in motion the processes which have culminated In the absorption of the tramway project by the city, the addition of motorbus fleets to the municipal responsi bilities, and the suggestion that a commission be appointed to help in straightening out the difficulties that have resulted. Apart from buses, the city to-day runs over 200 trams, employs 1,300 men on tramway work alone, and pays a yearly wage bill amounting to £364,000. The contrast with 1596 and its 33 horse-drawn trams stimulates genuine wonder as to the lines that future development may follow. Traffic has altered under the impulse of motor development. Where the traffic office in 1596 dealt in carts and bicycles, the institution which has now supplanted it deals in motor-cars, whereof the name is legion, and over 13,000 drivers’ licences have been issued under it* authority this year. The years have rolled on and responsibility has widened. Thus the traffic department now maintains a corps of uniformed policemen for point-duty work. It controls, also the almost superfluous city pound, and in handling the work of the dog-ranger (who was formerly under the sanitary depart - ment) deals annually with the registration of 3,000 animals, in place of the 512 certified in 1596. GAS IN THE LIBRARY So is the Auckland of 30 years ago! pictured in print and statistics in a municipal report picked up at random. It is a record that in brief terms contains much of historical significance. The year had been signalised by the installation of incandescent gas lighting in the library, and Sir George Grey had made another addition to the already notable collection he had presented to that institution. Vital statistics of the day were under the paternal eye of the municipality and the sanitary inspector records dolefully that, whereas Auckland's old people were showing great tenacity of life, the infants of the city were not so robust, the town’s rate of infant mortality being the highest among the four chief centres. Births for the year totalled BSB, and 459 people died. By way of comparison, the figures for the Auckland urban area in 192-6 were: Births, 3,665; deaths, 1811.

During 1896 the council decided to keep street lamps alight until 2 a.m., instead of cutting them off at mid night. The city was divided into six I wards, North, South, East, Ponsonby, Karangahape and Grafton, and in these the year's expenditure on road maintenance amounted to £12,000, the exI penditure including money spent in putting down some of the wooden paving blocks still In evidence in Customs Street West and elsewhere. The city’s water supply at this period came from Western Springs, and the report of the engineer records that “the plant is in good condition, but like all works of the age of ours, requires constant attention to keep it in serviceable order.” Since then much water has passed under various bridges, or has been consumed by the citizens of Auckland, and the legislators who were then shaping its destinies would 1 doubtless find much satisfaction in ! contemplating the city as the hand of I time leaves it after 30 momentous I years.