The Press Tuesday, November 29, 1921. Tramway Board Election.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 17315, 29 November 1921, Page 6

The Press Tuesday, November 29, 1921. Tramway Board Election.

The community ihat is served by the Christchurch Tramway system will, at to-day's election, secure for the next three years the Tramway Board that it; deserves.' If the people who believe that tho administration of the Board hitherto has been in the general interest of the public vote for the return of at least a large proportion of sitting 'members, we shall hare a Board which may be relied upon to pursue the sound and progressive policy of the past. If, as has been too often the case in Christchurch, this class of the constituency shows its indifference to the proper conduct of publio affairs by staying away from the voting booths, we shall have a Board largely composed of. persons ignorant of business and , finance, and without the least direct acquaintance with the problems involved in tramway administration. For, to their credit be it said, the supporters of the Labour Party show no slackness in voting, in this respect,setting a good example to.those who oppose them. . The issue between the two main parties contesting the election is no mere academic question. It is one which aonperns very materially the comfort and convenience of virtually everyone in the district. Last year the trains carried 18f million people, which, as , the tramway district contains a population of roughly 95,000 people,, means an average of nearly 200 tram trips in the year for every person in the district. Every single individual who was carried was dependent for the safety and con-

venience of the service upon the men who sat round the Board table, because upon their conception of their duties depended the provision of the means whereby the rolling stock, lines, and general equipment were properly maintained. The Labour candidates apparently believe in "living for the day." They ridicule the policy which builds ap reserves for depreciation and renewals, as though cars and lines and overhead gear never needed replacement. It would hare been quite a simple, and for a time a very popular act, for the Board that has just completed its term of office to cut the fares in half, if they had had no regard for the immediate and future necessities of the sen-ice, and had been willing to pass on to the ratepayers the task of meeting the deficit. But there would inevitably have come a time, and that within a vary few years, when that kind of policy would have had to stop, and the last state of tramusers would have been a great deal worse than it is to-day, or than it is ever likely to be as long as the Board's affairs are administered with due regard to sound business principle. The question before the electors to-d&y is whether business men or non-business men are to control our tramway service. It is a question to which, considering the magnitude of the interests involved, the common sense of the community will have no difficulty in giving the right answer, if it displays as much discrimination in choosing the directors of an enterprise with a capital of some £900,000 as would be exercised by any handful of individuals in electing the directors of a money club or a dairy company.