NO VOTE ON TRAM LOANS?

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 349, 9 May 1928, Page 13

NO VOTE ON TRAM LOANS?

SUGGESTION TO COMMISSION TRAMWAY CHAIRMAN IN BOX FOLLOWING the failure of the loan poll to raise £500,000 for tramway purposes, the Auckland City Council is asking the Transport Commission to recommend that power be given the council to raise additional capital without going to the ratepayers for sanction. The qualification is that the raising of the loan should be approved by the Public Works Department and the Loans Board.

The £ 500,000 loan was turned down by the ratepayers last August by a majority of over SOO on a poll of about 7.600. This followed addresses throughout the city by council representatives favouring the loan. In addition the City Council has submitted the following to the commission:—

“The City Council considers that there is no justification for the setting up of a Transport Board. The policy it has pursued is the only policy which any body controlling the transport could properly pursue. “Should the commission think representation should be given outside districts, then the council suggests that it can better be obtained by the creation of a Greater Auckland, operating not only transport services but all other public services in the transport district. “The council can only view with alarm any proposal calculated to deprive its present area, comprising the bulk of population and the material wealth of the transport district, of the preponderance of power to which its importance entitles it.”

These were the essential contentions of the City Council as voiced by Cr. J. A. C. Allum, chairman of the Tramways Committee, and member of the Transport Appeal Board* when he went into the witness box before the Transport Commission yesterday afternoon. Witness said he was an electrical engineer, and had been a member of the Tramway Committee since 1921. He asserted that the taking over of the transport system had been a good move on the part of the city. Under its control the system had greatly improved. The bus war started in 1924, an unfair feature being that the trams had to maintain a third of the roads over which their competitors ran buses. The council embarked on a bus policy to protect its interest. Buses and an increased tram time-table, which traffic did not warrant, failed to meet the competition, and the council joined other bodies in seeking legislation.

The only alternative was a fight which would have extinguished the private owners and seriously crippled the tramway undertaking.

Mr. Allum said he did not favour the legislation, but he now held that the obtaining of legislation had been a wise act, and a statesmanlike one so far as the Government was concerned.

The council had been saddled with services which were hopelessly unprofitable, and which affected the basis on which the tramways were running. The council held that it was its duty to protect the public from uneconomic transport facilities. The fact that Auckland was a large city with relatively low density of population, made it practicable only to run services on main thoroughfares, while some districts must wait for transport. LOANS WITHOUT POLLS

Mr. Allum outlined recent history of the undertaking, charges in fares and the unsuccessful poll for the £500,000 loan. The council was still definitely

of opinion that the tram extensions were essential, and that a favourable pronouncement from the commission would be followed by the ratepayers sanctioning the loan. “As a safeguard for the interests of the outer districts, the council would suggest that legislation somewhat similar to that recommended by the Water Commission should be passed/’ remarked Cr. Allum. ‘"So that the council could raise money for extensions in these districts where recommended by the Public Works Department, and approved by the Local Government Loans Board, without the necessity of taking a poll.” On a question from the chairman, Mr. .T. S. Barton, S.M., Air. J. Stanton, city solicitor, said this recommendation was made by witness on behalf of the council. Witness then voiced the other essentials mentioned above. All the information placed before t. te commission this morning was presented to the council and published late last year, when the policy of the council respecting trams was in the melting pot. TO-DAY’S PROCEEDINGS This morning Air. Allum commenced his evidence by detailing the conferences with local bodies, and the refusal of the outside bodies to subsidise their bus services up to ISd a mile, as a temporary measure or otherwise, and their advocacy of the licensing of private buses. A considerable portion of the morning was spent while witness read the long statement he made to the council at the end of the year 1926-27. (Proceeding.)