TRAMWAY ARBITRATION.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 11876, 25 April 1904, Page 9

TRAMWAY ARBITRATION.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE PBESS. Sir.—The members of the Tramway Board at their meeting on the 14th inst., having congratulated themselves on the settlement recently arrived at by arbitration for the acquirement of the parts of tho concesssions to the existing Company (about six miles) which do not expire next September, and as tlie article in your issue of this morning states that what expressions of opinion have been given in the direction of accepting the award as satisfactory; it may be deemed that in expressing an antagonistic opinion I am the one obstinate juryman among the ratepayers who cannot consent to the verdict. If the Board had been compelled to acquire all the existing lines, a settlement worse for the ratepayers might possibly have been made, as arbitrators* as a rule do not give the most judicial, decisions; But as the Board were not so compelled, I submit that the interests of the rateoayers have in this case not been properly conserved. Tho four miles of the Sumner line referred to in the award would have fallen into the hands of ratepayers without payment in five years' time, in the meantime i the Company was bound to continue | running the trams or forfeit its concesI sions; therefore no serious inconvenience |to the public would have occurred if the Company had been left to enjoy its concession, and the ratepayers would have been saved tlie expenditure under the award for a line that practically will have io be reconstructed to make it suitable for electric trams. The 85 chains at the south end of Colombo road, and the 75 chains from the Show Grounds to Sunnyside would have been quite useless to the Company without running powers over the Board's lines, or an arrangement with the Board to regulate traffic to. suit She Company; yet the Company would have been compelled to run trams on them or forfeit their concessions. If the trams were run, tlie traffic would probably not pay working expenses. I believe all tlie lines purchased by the Board will have to be reconstructed to make them suitable for electric trams—the Board has already proposed to shorten the Sumner line by tekirig it across the mud flats. It is, therefore, incomprehensible to mc why the Board has decided to purchase these useless lines, and still more incomprehensible why they decided to do so by arbitration, when by simply declining to purchase, and by properly modelling their own traffic arrangement* they could have soon forced the Company ,to sell on tlie Board's own terms. How much Tolling stock is included in the award has not been published. | .fudging by tlie cost (£8815) it should include all the rolling stock of tlie Company, i A large amount of this, such as steam motors nnd old carriages, will be quite useless to the Board. The ratepayers surely never contemplated this when they j voted for borrowing £300,000 for electric ; trams. —Yours, etc., CHARLES ALLISON. I April 20th, 1904. j _