TRAMWAY CONCESSIONS.

Press, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14349, 8 May 1912, Page 8

TRAMWAY CONCESSIONS.

When tho Dnnedin City Council's tram manager, in accordance with instructions, recommended in March last year a liberal scale of concessions io train passengers, he took the precaution of pointing out that ifc -ivas quito possible that a year's experience might show that the concessions were greater than tho Council could afford. Tho event has proved that his conjecture was

correct. Briefly, the position in which i tho Tramway Committee of tho City I Council find themselves is that with an ; increa.se of over a million and a quarter iin tho number of passengers in tlio J year, the additional revenue amounts j ! to only £'7PS—the average increa.se dur- { i itv,; the last five years being nearly £'!00!>—while working expenses have increased by £3540. It is obviously im- j J possible for any concern to continue! j doiuj; business at that rate, and the ! Tramway Committee have therefore been calling for reports from tho J manager and the town clerk, which are !to be discussed to-day. Both are inI terostint; documents, alike to tramway authorities and The tram manager points out nmonji other things that the wet summer, as wiyfnt have been expected, interfered very materially with the seaside traffic, and that the increase in tho wages bill for the current year i.s estimated at .C3OOO. But J the essence of his report lies in J the following passage:—" In my onin- { '• ion wo carry far too many passengers I"' under cost price, our concession' { j" being more liberal than in any !;' Home Country system of the same • "size that I know of. whereas our " wages aro considerably over 100 per "cent, higher, and the materials used "■ in connection with repairs and ntain"tonanco cost from 30 per cent to !i) " per cent, more (han in tho Old Coun"try. Our concessions to children, '•(■eiioo! children, and junior workers '■aro far more liberal than those •"granted in even the largo tramwajf "systems of the Old Country." Referring to the tramway concessions in Christehuroh he expresses tho opinion that though they aro liberal, they <!«> not compare in this respect with Dunedin, and in support of hie belief he quotes the fact that in Christchurch only 23 i out of every 100 tram passengers travel by concession ticket, whereas in Duncdin the "concessionaires" number rather more than fifty in every ICO. Or. in money terms, which aro even more striking, cash fares count for £82 4s out of every LIDO taken on i the Christcliurcli trams, and for only ' £->5 18s in Duncdin. The Town Clerk's chief noint is that it i.s the cash passengers, nr.yin.g a penny per section, who produce the profit, and that the result of the year's working is proof that the Diinedin tramways are carrying an unduly large number of passengers at less rost. There is an apparent recognition herein that a proportion of tho passengers havo some claim to be carried at something loss thns. tho ratewhich produces a profit, and thero are certainly arguments in favour of that policy. .But if the recommendations in the reports are accepted, Dunedin people -will have to pay rather ' morethan they do now for their tram journeys, and Christohurch people will be lucky if they escape the same experience.