THE WATERFRONT RAILWAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 171, 21 July 1922, Page 4

THE WATERFRONT RAILWAY.

We publish elsewhere a long statement 'by the Chairman of the Harbour Board, in reply to criticism that has been levelled against the proposal to construct a level railway crossing in Queen Street. We venture to say that it will carry very little conviction to anyone who understands the subject and who is personally familiar with the seaports of Sydney, San Francisco, and New York, to which Mr. Mackenzie specially refers. We have no doubt that Mr. Mackenzie has put forward this statement in all good faith, and its obvious mistakes are due to a lack of such local knowledge and the misreading of the reports from which he quote;. Taking, first of all, his reference to the waterfront at West Street, the great shipping centre of New York. In the early part of the statement an endeavour is made to prove that a railway runs along the waterfront there for three miles, terminating at Battery Point. Later on, in quoting the San Francisco Harbour Commissioners regarding the facilities existing at that port, it ie stated that "even such a I great seaport as New York has no harbour belt line." We had already prepared and printed in our illustrated

Supplement for issue to-morrow, a ! photograph of part of "We3t Street, 1 together with a plan of many of its : wharves. These shew clearly that the line alonn- West Street is an ordinaryelectric tramway, without any crosstracks connecting with the wharves. Mr. Mackenzie has evidently been misled by the common application in America of the term "'railway'" to all such lines. As a matter of fact, however, the New York Central Railway, in 1849, obtained a concession under which it laid a railway from the waterfront along 11th Avenue, and the death roll on this street was so great that it acquired the name "'Death Avenue." Eighty-four people were killed in five years. Public indignation reached such a height that, in 1911, the rights of the railway company were tested through the American Courts up to the Appeal Court, and finally, despite the powerful influences exercised by the railway company, an Act was passed through the New York Legislature, by a majority of 100 to 17, abolishing the concession. The inlluence of the company, however, was more powerful with the municipality j than with the legislature, and the. Mayor, exercising certain statutory | powers, refused to give effect to the | | Mr. Mackenzie's voluminous quotations, from the report of the San Francisco Commissioner's fail to disprove Mr. Spencer'Macky's statement thai! there are no railways on the wharves in the vicinity of the Ferry Buildings. A photo-, graph forwarded with Mr. Mackenzie's statement moreover, rather gives his shosv away. A locomotive is shewn steam- j ing along a raised line that certainly j could not be laid anywhere where there' is cross street traffic, and with no obvious connection with shed No. 33 shewn on the waterfront. Mr. Mackenzie also admits that an elevated bridge has been found necessary for the safety of ferry, passengers crossing the street tramways at the bottom of Market Street. There is not the remotest possibility of the ferries at the bottom of Market Street ever being interfered with by any har-j hour works. I The facts regarding Sydney are so well known as to hardly need further explanation. At the bottom of Sydney's chief streets at Circular Quay, is a wide front from which, for a quarter of a mile, ferry wharves provide an outlet for its immense harbour traffic. On either side arc berths for great Ocean liners, not only the P. and 0-, but the steamers that conduct the big cargo trade with the East are accommodated. There would be no engineering difficulties in running the railway ta Circular Quay, were the city prepared to grant right-of-way. Eastward of that is the Botanical Gardens, sloping to the sea. and beyond that Woolloomooloo harbour, where great cargo steamships load and discharge. There would again be no difficulty in this instance about connecting this bay with Redfeni station, if that were considered necessary. On the western side of Circular Quay and George I Street, are situated the. wharves at Dawes and Miller's Points, where ad-1 miitedly there might be obstacles to a railway and Darling Harbour. More than forty deep sea berths exist there. None of these have railway connection, although a viaduct along the waterfront might connect Barling Harbour wharves' with railway terminals at Pyrmont as easily as the Auckland Harbour Board propose to connect Prince's wharf with the Freeman's Bay reclamation. It has been found, however, that the railway wharves at Pyrmont and at Glebe Point, further up. serve all the requirements of direct shipment by railway. It may be remarked that the railway connecting these wharves passes through a tunnel I under (ieorge Street, not across the j street, as the Auckland Harbour Board ! propose. ' I The figures regarding the cargo (lis- ! charged direct into railway trucks are a good deal discounted upon analysis. Of the tonnage, coal (Government) represents 83,85ti tons, which will never be ' discharged at Princes wharf; coal, New i Zealand, figures at 54,054. and coal over- | seas, 110,154. A considerable proportion of this coal will go to the gasworks via tile Western wharf. Manures account tor 48,775. Coal and manures combined represent approximated one-third of the import tonnage. It has not been shewn that the three existing railway wharves are inadequate for all requirements, and the Winter Show gave a good indication of the adequacy of the Board's sheds and the extent to which they are re- . quired by the trade of the port. Mr. Mackenzie is uotablv silent, except by indirect reference's, about the Board's scheme to carry the railway beyond Princes wharf across a viaduct_ past the timber mills to the Freeman's Bay reclamations, with various sidings there. The most conclusive com-.

■■»—■———^^—■—■—^—^^^^^^^^ ment on this level crossing scheme is the fact that the Railway Department, if |we interpret Mr. Guthrie's statement in -Parliament aright, has very sensiby de- ■ jclined to become responsible for it. 'j =====