TRAMWAYS FINANCE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 187, 16 January 1915, Page 6

TRAMWAYS FINANCE.

To the Editor, .Sir, —T mil averse to the discussion of municipal affairs by members of the Comii-ii ihrough tlie eorres]>oii(lence colliiniis of the newspapers, but 1 fear that your leader on Friday morning on this question may raise a feeling of uneasiness in the minds of our townspeople, and therefore, ask your permission to amplify the reported reasons for the dec'sion of the Tramways Committee. The real question is whether a sum of ,C2ftflO will be sufficient to provide for such unforeseen expenditure as may arise in the C'lipletion of the work?. It was not until Wednesday's meeting that the. Committee was in a position to say what thc| total cost of the works would be. Then after having let every portion of the work and provided for every contingency which the experience of the consulting engineer could foresee, we found that there wa..a shortage of C!~>00. There are two methods of raising this amount, the first by going to the ratepayers for a further loan, involving all tile expense of a poll of the ratepayers, and the second by availing ourselves of the power given by the Local Bodies Loans .Act of raising without a poll not more than 10 per cent of the amount originally authorised {£■>'■ ,000). It is certainly \. ;se to provide some allowance for contingencies, but who can say what such allowance should be? To my mind a "roposal to the ratepayers to raise a irger sum than £2fW) for contingencies would imply a grave misgiving on tinpart of the Council that unexpected conditions will arise. I would like to j point out, that the state of industrial | affairs will not affect the position. The contracts are for lump sum for the execution of certain work and the provision of certain equipment which the Council I is advised will give the Borough when | it takes them over a fully established tramway system ready to put into .service. We know that the contractors have to provide these for stated muds and after making all allowances we have, if we borrow the whole of the additional 10 per cent, a sum of .£'2ooo available for eonl ingencies. The difficulty witli the Council would be to assess the amount of the probable contingencies and fix the amount of the fresh loan. Oil the face of the position (here should be none but cant'on suggests a reasonable provision. ami we have the opinion of the consulting engineer that a provision of £200(1 should be enough. In framing his estimates for the work, he necessarily had to make himself conversant with the foundations on which the track is to be laid and T feel satisfied to rely on bis judgment. The instance of the Auckland Tramways Company in Queen street, Auckland, which was quoted as likely to arise here, was referred to by the engineer. Tie pointed out that in Auckland the sleepers were of ie crete laid longitudinally, while in our system the sleepers will be laid diagonally. (as railways sleepers are*, and therelore will provide the maximum of support for the cars bv distributing the weight. Mr Fred Black expressed himself as satisfied on this point. It : impossible to say whnt extra cxpeii-e would be involved if bad eoimtrv is exposed in carrying out (|„. works. I( might he a lew hundreds of pounds or thousands of pounds. ami for this reason 1 am satisfied that the eour-" now vroposed is the proper one. If we ev •( misfortune we must deal with it as if arises and when we know what we have to i.rovale for. I.i the !•:'antinv we have authority to pro\ ide such innncs as we |„„v i-\|,eei |o find v 'lli a siil>«{.in tiol 1 * 1 " i' i j'nr lie ot(o\|ii'il d. 1 -;!il eli . J. K. WILKiiW