QUEEN STREET TRAMS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLV, Issue 155, 1 July 1914, Page 6

QUEEN STREET TRAMS.

EXTENSION PAST TOWN HALL. PRELIMINARIES WELL UNDER WAY. WORE. TO START SHORTLY. On present indications tbe extension of the train lines in (Jueen Street as far as Karangahape Road should be undertaken before the end of the year. Tiie matter was referred to by the Mayor (Mr. C. -1. Parr. C.M.G.) this morning. "Recent correspondence in tbe columns of the 'Star' contains a complaint of delay on the part of the City Council in regard to the extension of the tram .way up (Jueen Street.'' he remarked. '"This is quite unfair criticism. The Council is not to blame for any delay at all. It was only just before I left for Australia that I arranged with Mr. Walklate term* for the satisfactory settlement of this troublesome question, which has been a subject of discussion for the past two years. Immediately that M,-. Walklate' and I reached an agreement upon these matters il became necessary for the tramway company to prepare documents for signature, including an Order in Council, which will be required before the new extension can gn on. The tramway company's legal advisers now have in hand the preparation of document*, and tiie City Solicitor, at the request of the ' Tow,: Clerk, is urging upon the tramway company all passible expedition. So soon as the agreement with the tramway company ir. drawn up and signed, tiie application for an Order in Council will be advertised, and if, after the prescribed period of four weeks, no objection has been received, the matter will then proceed. The Order in Council should immediately be issued, whereon the tramway company should be in a position to at once proceed with tho work." The conditions of the agreement were briefly explained by the Mayor. Because the term of the contract nil] be for IS or I!) years, instead of 3:5 years, as in the ease of the original contract, the ( otincil will give the company a con-ce-i.m in this way. When the time arrives for taking the tramways over from the company the Council will give a fourth more for this part of ihe line than for existing lengths nf line constructed under the old deed. The consideration for this, however, i.s to be expressed in the Council's desire to have the trams brought right up to the Town Ha.ll, for the greater convenience of citizen-. The Mayor states that it is not to bo taken as a precedent. Side poles are (o be put in. and 11,,. eompanv will maintain the centre wav in tarred macadam. ■•Personally." added Air. Parr, "1 ,mi very keen on getting ihe trams to the Town Hall as. .soon as po.ss.ible. but newspaper correspondents must not overlook the fact that the letral preliminaries arc necessary, and cannot be got through in a day."