"PURE GUESS-WORK."

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 87, 13 April 1927, Page 11

"PURE GUESS-WORK."

FARES AND EXTENSIONS, j CITY TRAMWAYS POLICY. J ADDRESS BY MR. BLOODWORTH. Speaking of the tramway policy of Auckland at a meeting of Point Chevalier ratepayers last evening, Mr. T. Blood worth, the Labour candidate for the mayoralty said that the policy of ' the present council was to extend the i trams, and to increase the fares on the ; outer sections. In his opinion, there . was not only no justification for such increases, but it was entirely wrong policy. Wellington had ' a threepenny maximum fare, and the Mayor of Wellington was reported to have said last week: "In my opinion the concession has been a very wise movement and is a better method of solving the housing problem than anything we could do in the building line. With this threepenny concession fare we have every land agent in the eity working for us: they are all interested in bringing under the notice of homebuilders cheap building land in the suburbs." The policy oi the pre .::t council in Auckland with respect to both fares and proposed extensions he had already described it in the council as pure guess work, and it was really nothing else. After reviewing the development of the tramway business since it was purchased by the corporation, on the authority of a vote of ratepayers in i July l'jio at a cost of £1,250.000, Mr.. Bloodworth briefly spoke of the policy in the future. This, he said, depended, of course, upon who was elected. In his opinion, Auckland had not heard the last of competition, and lie thought the best way to meet competition was to i improve the service: not only to im-| prove it, but to make it popular; make j it cater for the needs of the public, and | encourage people to use the public faeil- | ities provided. This could be done in several ways. It certainly will not be done by increasing fares over long distances. That method was merely inviting more opposition from other forms of transport. He advocated in this, and other matters, the closest co-operation between the City Council and other local bodies, but j for suburbs which were already part of the city he saw no reason why tram fares should be increased, and in places where buses were provided and not trams he thought the bus fares should be the same as tram fares. Some people talked of community buses. What they really meant by that was sectional buses. The only real community buses were those owned and controlled by the whole of the community. The council's tramway and omnibus service was a community service. It could be more so if the Mayor and council were prepared to make it so. At the close of his address, the candidate was accorded a vote of thanks and confidence.