The Press. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 1913 THE TRAMWAYS.

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14583, 6 February 1913, Page 6

The Press. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 1913 THE TRAMWAYS.

The Chairman of tho Tramway Board has met recent criticism in a very broad-minded ■ spirit, and bVero is agood deal of force in some portions, at least, of his reply. Nevertheless, it seems to us that his defence is an admission that municipal ownership of trams is attended by some fatal weaknesses from which private undertakings are free. As regards tho construction of the Ohristchurch lines, in the first iustance. it appears that they were not laid out on sound, economic principles, because a public body had to take into consideration a number of more or less political considerations, whereas a private company, having to make tho undertalcng pay, Avould haA-e thought only of tiho guiding principles which experience has shoivn to be necessary if tramways are to be mado a commercial success. We fear tho samo influences must have been at work in the caso of some of the later additions and extensions. Wo cannot conceive of a private company going to the expense of laying down an electric tram to a district which, to uso Mr Booth's words, is "incapable of supporting a " moro frequent service than twenty, "thirty or forty minutes." We can quite sco tho difficulty of making trams fit in on a system designed like the one under notice, and thero is a good deal of forco in Mr Booth's remark about tho number of people on the various branches who want to get in or out of town at "precisely tho same time. Still, wo cannot (help thinking that :f a private company had charge of the tramways they Avould be made to pay, and that without inflicting any hardship on the public, because it Is the essence of bad and unsuccessful tram-

] way management u> place tho public j under a sense of grievance. The Board I will never set matters right by such ! brilliant expedients as making penny ! trip-tickets available for one section only, and insisting on tho holder, after he has had one "nip," producing a penny for every subsequent section. Nor do wo think it tends to popularise the trams to debar a gentleman wito { wishes to take a party of ladies to tho j theatre from using tickets for that j purpose, and insisting on his flourishing tijie actual coin in tht-ir Laces.