TRAM EXTENSIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 283, 28 November 1924, Page 9

TRAM EXTENSIONS.

p. CURTAILMENT POLICY.

A MOUNT EDEN PROTEST. 1.- COUNCIL BUSES WILL RUN.

Strong protest is to be offered by the borough of Mount Eden to the new policy of the City Council to curtail tramway extension, as far as Mount Eden ia concerned. At last night's meeting of the Council the following letter was read from the town clerk of Mount Eden: "At a meeting of my Council held on 10th instant, I was instructed to express to your Council the extreme surprise with which they learnt through the city solicitors, Messrs. Stanton, Johnston and Spcnce, that it ■was the intention of your Council not to proceed at the present time with the extension of the tram lines beyond the terminus on the Mount Eden Road and on the Dominion Road. It will be within the recollection of your Council that at the invitation of the Mayor, Sir James Gunson, the Mount Eden Borough Council and the Mount Roskill Roarl Board attended a meeting of your Council in order to state whether they were prepared to comply with your requirements that a permanont track should be provided on eaeli side of the tram track. This condition was agreed to by both local bodies, and it was then stated that the extensions woul.i be put in hand on the completion of the work on the Edendale extension, that it would be commenced in October, 1924, and finished hy October, 1925. Mo-.mt KJen then submitted loan proposals to the ratepayers which were accepted. The City Council's definite public undertaking was relied upon and widely circulated amongst the Mount Eilen ratepayers. The tramways engineers with the Mayor of Mount Eden ami the borough engineer inspected the tramway routes, and agreed on the l-'.cis which involved additional work, in order to improve the re-laying of the track by your department. This cost a considerable extra amount. At a later date the manager of the tramways asked that a wall be provided, some twenty inches in depth, to enable the track to be laid in a more substantial manner. This aiso the Council agreed to, and they luive a letter from yourself as recently as September 18 thanking them for complying with the Council's wishes. In view of this, and of your publicly expressed intention of proceeding with the work, they are at a loss now to understand your change of policy, and I am instructed to ask if this be really your definite decision, and if so, to ask whether you will be good enough to arrange a meeting between representatives of your Council and representatives of the Mount Eden Council before any change in the plans for the concrete on the side of proposed tracks i 3 considered."

The Mayor (Sir. .Tames Gunson) moved that the Mount Eden Borough Council be advised that the City Council's view was:—

1. That the Mount Eden Borough Council was invited by the City Council to meet it to consider proposals to extend the tramway system in that dis-

2. The proposals submitted were con rented'to by the Mount Eden Council.

3. A cardinal condition was that "an approved deed of delegation" should be executed by the Mount Eden Borough Council, and that was intimated at the time of the meeting referred to. 4. This Council submitted to Mount Eden a deed for approval, but its terms were not agreed to; this Council could not accept the amendments made by the Mount' Eden Council in the deed. Bus Competition. 5. In the .meantime, serious motorbus competition had arisen, which changed this. Council's view, and in the circumstances it found it necessary, on financial grounds, to reconsider the proposals for tramway extensions.

6. Until the present inequitable position under the existing inadequate legislation in the matter of annual license fees for pubic passenger vehicles is corrected, and sufficient power given to local authorities to equalise such charges to the financial obligations under which tramways now operate, this Council, in the interests of the city ratepayers, is not prepared to incur the risk of further capital expenditure on new tramwayline construction; for that and the aforementioned reasons it defers the question of the proposed extensions for the present. It now begs to advise the Mount Eden Borough Council that it proposes to acquire further up-to-date motor buses, and if the Mount Eden Borough Council desire, and the residents of the district require, it will offer a sufficient •nd quick motor bus service on both the roads concerned.

The Mayor also moved that the Mount Eoskill Hoad Board be advised of the Council's revised policy in connection with the tramways.

The resolutions were adopted by the Council.

But notwithstanding the curtailment of other proposed extensions, the Council decided last night on the duplication cf the Heme Bay line, following on a report by the Mayor, recommending this w.ork. The report stated that the length to be duplicated was 27 chains, and the cost would be £7000. The duplication would provide greatly increased • facilities, warranted by the traffic, and would remove causes of existing discontent associated with a single line service. The work would only occupy about two months.

HISTORY Or NEGOTIATIONS. It is about fifteen months since an agreement was reached whereby the City Council undertook to extend the tramways to the boundary if Mount Eden put the roads down in concrete. In order to do this the ratepayers of Mount Eden carried a proposal to raise a loan of £125,000, and subsequently contracts were let for the work, the amount bein*: just on £06,000. The work was then put in hand, and is now well under way.

Everything went alon-r smoothly until recently, when the deed of delegation was presented to the Mount Eden Council, and it was noticed that a clause contained in the deed placed the responsibility for the maintenance of the tram tracks upon the local body Other local bodies in Onehunga, Mount RoskUl. and One Tree Hill where the trams are running, are not responsible for the maintenance of the tracks, and the Mount Eden Council aid not feel disposed' to meet thp obligation. The clause was struck out and the de*d of delegation returned to the City Couucil. The maintenance of the tracks would possibly. run into a. •onaderabk sum. Recently Mr. A E.

Ford, general manager of the city tramways, in a report to the City Council, said he could not recommend the City Council accepting responsibility for maintaining tram tracks l» areas controlled by local bodies. If it is definitely decided that the tramway extensions are not to be made in Dominion and Mount Eden Roads, the ratepayers and council of Mount Eden will have to seriously consider the position. It is claimed that every endeavour has been made to meet the <;jty Council, and come time a2fo. at the request of Mr. Ford, the borough agreed tc rim a concrete wall about two feet deep along the edge of the concrete bordering the proposed tram track. The cost of this is about £3000. The present contracts are for concreting Mount Eden and Dominion P>oads on each side of the proposed tram track, which means two-thirds of the road, and if the City Council decides not to go on with the tram extensions it means that the Mount Eden body will either have to concrete the whole of the roads, or concrete roadways to the width of 18 feet in the middle, and make the sides macadamised, or curtail contracts.