THE TRAMWAY PROPOSALS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 45, 2 June 1910, Page 7

THE TRAMWAY PROPOSALS.

PUBLIC DISCUSSION OF THE SCHEME. RATEPAYERS WANT MUNICIPAL TEA-MS. There was a large attendance of ratepayers at the Town Hall last night, at the Mayor's invitation, to' discuss the proposal to institute an electric tram service in New Plymouth and suburbs, and to give a lead as to whether or not the scheme should be undertaken by the municipality. His Worship the Mayor (Mr. G. Tisch) presided. In opening the proceedings, Mr. Tisch quoted the salient features of the report of the committee recently submitted to the citizens' representative committee, and published and fully commented upon in the local press. The scheme outlined was to run trams on the overhead trolley system from 'tzroy to Moturoa, with a service of five cars. For the carrying out of the projeqt a loan of £40,000 would have to be raised. It had been estimated that the tuniual expenditure in interest and working expenses, based on figures obtained from Wanganui, would be £7500, and the earnings about £SO less than that. That deficiency would have to be provided for. To collect that amount a property worth £IOOO would have to pay Is 6d wnile, even supposing the didn't earn a single penny, the rate would amount to only 33- for every £IOOO. The Mayor explained that the suburban areas proposed to be included in a tramway district, if formed, would have a valuation ■of about £400,000, and the borough a valuation of over £1.000,000. It was not worth while to have divided control for the sa'ke of the rateable value of the suburbs, and he favored municipalising the trams, especially seeing that the borough possessed the electrical ■plant to' generate the power, office accommodation, land for buildings, and s'o on. Answering an objection that had been made concerning the possibility of the suburban bodies declining to allow the trams to continue to pass over their roads without payment, the Mayor quoted the Tramways Act, setting out the powers and liabilities of the tramway promoters or proprietors, and showing that there need be no fear on that steore. With a view of ascertaining the feeling of the meeting, he moved, "That this meeting of ratepayers endorse the proposal to establish a tramway scheme as a municipal undertaking, and requests the Council to take the necessary steps to give effect to the proposals." Mr. G. H. McGahey seconded. He said that a little while ago he had been in Wanganui and had come away convinced that it was time for New Plymouth to make a stir in the matter of trams, and that if Wanganui could run trams so could we. Although we had p. lesser population than Wanganui we had the big seaside resorts at Moturoa' and Henui.

Mr. Rowley supported the motion, and asked if the Council had obtained any information with regard to Edison's storage batteries'. Tliis should be investigated before laying down tramway rails. He suggested that storage battery cars would enable branch lines to be ensily constructed froml Moturoa to town, by way of Devon street, and to the suburbs. T;he Mayor said that this matter could be investigated, but need not interfere with his motion. These tram cars' of Edison's ran on rails, so the rails mid down for. the. overhead system could be used if the storage hattery cars came into vogue. Mr. W. C. Weston said that in Wanganui the trams were run by a Tangye suction gas engine of 135 h.p., except on /heavy days'. He had noticed in Wanganui that an Aramoho-bound tram one afternoon was filled with women who had been into Wanganui to "shop," bringing their children with them. Now those women wouldn't have been able to shop in Wanganui but for the trains. An engineer in Wanganui had told him, too, that the rails there had been wrongly laid, and that the proper way was to have them laid on concrete. Another matter that he had found out in Wanganui was that there were more "penny' sections" there than could possibly be worked here, so our revenue would not be so large in proportion. In answer to questions, the Mayor s'aid that the cars would cost perhaps only £BOO, whereas the estimate allowed £1"200 each. Mr. If. F. Russell raised the point of the suburban districts contributing to the cost or accepting their share of the liability. The suburbs were going to be] fed by the borough witih trams, electric light, water supply, and so on, giving 1 them all the municipal facilities, putting up their values 100 per cent for every 10 per cent, of improvement in the borough. This meant putting back the Greater New Plymouth scheme. Mr. R. C. Hughes said the motion would commit the ratepayers too much to the scheme without sufficient information. He complimented the committee on the success of its efforts so far. But it had struck him that ill comparing New Plymouth with Wanganui, ivej had overlooked the fact that Wanganui was level and more compact than New Plymouth. Construction and haulage would be cheaper. Wanganui had a much , bigger population than ours. Wanganui too, was well provided with municipal reserves, the revenue from which- enabled that town to comfortably bear any loss. The working of the Wanganui tramways last year showed a loss of : £279, without allowing anything for depreciation or sinking fund. ITe was quite willing that the Council should obtain I an expert's report, and as a ratepayer he was prepared to take the risk. He looked forward to the tram scheme being completed here very soon, but it was no us'e shutting one's eyes to the fact that this service would cost them something.

Mr. Tisch said that Mr. Hughes would) have an opportunity to express his opinion on the merits of the scheme at the statutory public meeting. What he wanted now was to obtain authority to incur a little expense. As yet he had ■spent nothing except out of his own pocket for a few telegrams. (Applause.) Mr. L. F. Laurent doubted whether i four ears could do the work required) here. Mr. F. E. Wilson referred to the reso-1 lution as being "cunningly drawn." and referred to the fact' that'lie was among' that minority on the Borough Council which opposed the proposal to go oil with a municipal tramways scheme at the present juncture. He protested that t'his scheme was-being unnecessarily hurried on, and 'before 'the ratepayers had been (riven any information at all. All they had was some information from Wanganui. and he contended that the Waneanui scheme 'had not been working long enough to give them a fair test. The people there were beginning to find | that wit. for now they were faced with i a heavy outlay in relaying the rails, for which no provision had. been made. I Auckland had had the same experience, and Wellington was eternally at it. whilst even at Dunedin, recognised as

j the 'best. laid line at the outset, the line 1 had had to 'be taken up and altered. There was a minority of the members oi the Council who believed that the proposal to instal tramways in New Plymouth was premature. Nowhere in tne | world coukl t-liev point to a- place with a population of 7500. as estimated in this scheme (but which he set down at nearer 5000), which had a modern electric tramway service at all, much less a successful one. New Plymouth couldn't afford a scheme unless it was to be a success, because the town was already so overloaded with loans that it was only with difficulty that the Council had made tilings meet, so that they would not he 'able to provide even the small difference referred to by the Mayor. Again, the Mayor, in his figures, had stated that the electric light department would get £OOO for current used in the working of trams. As a matter of fact, the municipal electric light works could not supply the .power, and before they installed trams the borough would have to raise a loan to enlarge the electric light works in order to .provide the current. Then, again, before laying trams it seemed to him that the Council would first have to pull up its sewers, which ran down the centre of the streets, where the rails must he laid. Of late they had seen pictures of Edison's latest invention, the storage ibattery ear, running in New York, and he asked if it were not worth while to wait two, three, or even five years, and get a system at about half the cost. By that time the ■battery car should he on the market. It would do away with all overhead wires and the heavy expensive poles. He felt that if the meeting passed the Mayor's resolution it would be used in endeavoring to coerce t-he minority of the Council into voting this £SO or £IOO for the report of an engineer. The estimates already provided for a deficit of £1001), 'and what were they going to do next year?—raise a rate? He moved as an amendment, "That in the opinion of this mcp ting the proposal to establish elev'iv'cal tramways in New Plymouth- is premature, but that the Council -be-requested to obtain such information as they can." He didn't propose that they should get an expert to report. The Council's officers could, by correspondence, obtain information regarding various installations in the world. If the motion were carried the Council would engage a Xew Zealand engineer to report. All the New Zealand engineers were working on the trolley system, which, in his opinion, would soon ■be out of date. It would pay to. wait a couple of years rather than go in for this expensive system. Mr. W. F. Brooking seconded, and said that Councillor Wilson had touched on the very .point that had suggested itself to him the generation of sufficient power. The Mayor said he couldn't see how the trams would interfere with the sewers-, and Mr. Wilson gave his opinion that they would he interfered Avith by the poles. The amendment was lost by 25 to 14. Mr. Brooking considered the voting was too small. Every ratepayer in the room should vote one. way or the other upon the proposal to incur this expenditure in the present condition «f the borough finances. If they were prepared to 'lie "rated for it, let them say so. -Mr. Cioodacre moved a further amendment that no further action he taken for six months, and that in the meantime the Tramways- Committee secure '.all information .possible. He didn't like delay, and wanted to see the tra-ms, 'believing that to delay the trains was to check progress, hut he thought they should get information from further afield. Mr. W. Bewlcy seconded pro forma, and mentioned that in six months' time they should have some knowledge of the success of Brennan's monorail, which seemed to him to he likely to supplant other forms of passenger transit. The Rev. Mr. Bradbury said that in six months' time there would probably he speakers urging further delay in order to test some 'later inventions. Mr. Weston suggested a subscription to raise the fee for the expert, and offered £l. (Mr. Brooking: And-I another.) The amendment was lost, only the mover and seconder voting for it. The Mayor's motion was carried, only two votes'being recorded against it.