WATERFRONT RAILWAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 161, 10 July 1922, Page 2

WATERFRONT RAILWAY.

CHAIRMAN DEFENDS PROPOSAI-S. A GEXERAL PRACTICE. i The chairman of the Auckland Har- . bDiir Board states, in reply to the I "Star's" criticism, that, as the design ■ of Princes wharf was approved three ' years ago, there was no need to bring ! the matter up again. It only came up - lately on account of tenders for the supply of the rails having been called, ; mid these tenders having been placed ■ before the board by the secretary. ' Tim board's records sho-.v that over f r>o per cent, of the exports and over 25 • per cent, of the imports pass over the • railway-; to the wharves. Butter, ' cheese, meat and other produce make 1 up !IO per coin, of the exports, and all '- require insulate J trucks. Any further f handling means additional expense, as 1 weil h« damage to the goods. Oi:rin«- the past, few years it has frequently happened that vessels requir- ' intc to discharge into railway trucks \ have had to wait in the stream, sometimes for two or three.days, for a berth. The necessity of Princes wharf with its four oversea berths having railway c connection is therefore obvious. The "Star' is unfortunate in the seleef tion of Xc-w York, San Francisco and , Sydney as ports without railway connections. In the two first-mentioned ,' the railway lines run along the waterfront streets. All the main wharves i are connected with these railways and 1 the ferry traffic passes over them. In i Sydney it was impossible in the past, on account of cliffs 60 to 80 feet high fronting the foreshore, to give railway connections to all wharves, but the Flarbour Trust is now laying railway sidings on its new wharves en the west side of Darling TCarbour, Pyrmont, .Tones' Bay and Glebe Island. At the board's office are plans of all the principal harbours in the world, showing that all the main wharves have railway connection with lines along the waterfront. i THE CHAIRMAN'S STATEMENT t ANALYSED. c c We have pleasure in publishing the ' statement made above by the chairman 1 of the Harbour Board on the subject of 1 the waterfront railway, and will readily ' afford space for any further communica--1 tion. We have complained of the practice which has been adopted by the Board of coming to important decisions afTovting the whole future of Auckland, and for which the citizens are heavily taxed upon every article that enters or is exported from our port, without any opportunity for discussion. The City Council cannot raise £10,000 to spend on a Zoo without taking a poll of the ratepayers, and the spending authority of the Electric Power Board is similarly , controlled, but the Harbour Board raises and spends millions and arb/frarily levies 1 taxation on t'ae whole community with- " out consultation, public discussion, or : control. 1 With regard to the projected level ' railway crowing in Queen Street—for fc that is the crucial point at issue in thie 1 matter, not whether certain export wharves should be connected with the railway—we feel confident that the more (.ho proposal is discussed the more clearly it will be demonstrated that there is no justification for it. and that it is against tlie public interests. , In New York there are 57S miles of water frontage, and if latterly a line has l>ccn run down West Str6et, on the ; Hudson front, it is well away from the 5 busy heart of the city, and there are two L points k> which attention must be drawn. i The sheds occupy practically the whole -' of the piers in nearly all eases, and ; I transference direct from the ship's hold, ■ or vice versa, which the local Board ' stresses as a nocessitv, would be practi- • rally impossible. Then in New York the i corresponding position to a railway , across Queen Street is Battery Park, the , terminal point of Manhattan Island, a - considerable area of open land, with a fine ■ aquarium and a wide sea frontage. From > the Battery Park pier excursion steamers ■ leave for various points. Broadway, in 1 its first mile from the seaward terminal, i is so narrow that only one car line can traverse it, and a loop line at Battery Park—such as is already necessary at the bottom of. Queen Street westward— carries the return traffic by another " route, an expedient that will have to be adopted here at no very distant date. When making a comparison with ' America there is a danger of falling into the error of confusing "street railways," 1 the term ordinarily applied to tramways, ; and very properly applied to the overhead railways of Xew York, with*railwaye as understood in British communities, . With regard to Shu Francisco, the ' plan in the Harbour Board's possession certainly shows a single, line across the bottom of Market Street to the wharves to the left of the ferries, and although we have never encountered anyone who luis. seen this railway in operation, the fact, remains that it is given on the official harbour plan. This portion of the waterfront in Sa,n Francisco is. however, not a district to emulate. Mr. Mackenzie refers to the railway connections at Sydney with the wharves , at the brad of Darling Harbour and at C.lobe Island. The last-named wharves may Ibe dismissed in a sentence. Glebe Island, at the head of .Tolmstoue's Bay. is equivalent to a wharf at the head of a deep set inlet in the vicinity of Cox's Crook. To get an estimate of the analogy between Queen Strwt and Darhng Harbour, Sydney, it is necessary to imagine a deep-water bay, two miles long by a mile wide, in the vicinity of Freeman's Bay. iined with wharves, on its pastern side for almost its entire J length. At the head of this ' harbour. above Pyrnion* Kridge, tlure are six export wharves con- ; iicct-ed with the railway. From Pyrmont Bridge round to "Circular Quay, i whrre the P. and 0. and Orient steamers 1 berth, there arc nearly r>o wharves not so connected, at all of which deep peagoing ships load and discharge. Between Circular Quay and Wooiloomooloo Bay intervene* the Botanical Gardens, and in that bay arc situated the wharves . at which l.">,000-ton ships of tho Blue Funnel line and othe-r groat cargo steamers load, also unconnected with , any railway. Tt is worthy of note that , both in Sydney and New York the most i central and valuable sites on the wateri front arc devoted to parks. And \vp I venture to suggest that even members • of tiie Auckland Harbour Board visiting Sydney would not have the temerity ■ to propose the construction of a Tailj I and Pitt Stroeta to the long line of ferry . wharves at Circular Quay, where thousands of passengers pour in and out nf ihp city from marine suburbs at all { ho-.irs of the day and night. ", Tγ. pvpry city of importance in the . world Ifcn first consideration is given to the safety and convenience of the . people. In Auckland, the Harbour SJ Board has lost its sense of proportion..

and the City Council seems to have subordinated its functions to the marine body, which is dominated largely OJ interests outside the city. SAN rKAWCISCO RESIDENT EXPLODES IDEA OF RAILWAYS ON WHARVES. Mr. K. Spencer Maeky. who is resident in San Francifsco, and is at the present time on a visit to Auckland, states definitely that the railway along the waterfront at San Francisco was constructed as a temporary expedient for the 1015 exhibition, to carry exhibits and building materials to the site of the world's fair outside the Presidio. It is his impression that the line was to lie taken up. The railway had, and has, no connection with the wharves, which are unsuitable to carry railways. Kven the coal wharf has no railway connection, deliveries being made from the shin's side by motors. _^_______^__ —- I - 1