THE COMPETITIONS.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 19852, 13 February 1930, Page 13

THE COMPETITIONS.

TO THE EDITOB 07 THE PRSBB. Six, —Sever.il of your correspondents have criticised the programme of the forthcoming competitions, but I would iilce to make a suggestion. The Society is offering several scholarships for pianoforte, but the violinists are left out in the cold. Why not make the scholarship open to both and award the prize to the most promising musician- or the most talented performer? If this is not possible, ther; perhaps some lover of the string brigade might be induced to provide the necessary prize.—Yours, etc., ft STRINGS. Greymouth, February 11th, 1930.

THE NORTH BEACH TRAMLINE. TO THE EDITOR Of THE PRESS. Sir, —In your article on non-paying lines which appeared in an issue of last week's date, you concluded by saying, "It (the Board) is not setting about these changes very confidently, and it is difficult to understand why." The Board's lack of confidence is owing to the fact that they are taking a leap in the dark, and not a few think they are likely to be stepping out of the frying-pan into the fire. The six buses that are to be built for use on the Burwood-North Beach line, will cost, when on the road, something like £IB,OOO, the interest on which at 5J per cent, will amount to a considerable sum. Then the three or four cars, to be withdrawn from the line, will be standing in the sheds, earning nothing, but eating up interest on the cost of construction. The line through Trover's swamp, will require a very large outlay ere it can carry heavy buses, for its foundation is a quaking morass, with two deep ditches on each side of it, a potential danger to human life should any of these buses meet with an accident. To make either a concrete or a bitumen highway of thig swamp road will cost a large sum of money, and it is scarcely likely that the Main Highways Board will see their way to do much in the matter. The Tramway Board are prepared to contribute; it will cost them a good many thousand pounds. The money that is to be spent on these buses, on this road, plus the cost of the idle trams itaken from the traffic, would pay the cost of relaying the line. • Then the Board is faced with the heavy depreciation charges incidental to these buses; their life is but a short one compared with that of tramcars; expensive tyres have constantly to be renewed; a tyre bursting at high speed would plunge the bus into one or other of the deep drains on each side of the road, when the Board would have to pay out many thousands of pounds in compensation.

there is the loss of traffic; on fine Saturdays and on Sundays, not to mention holidays, the trams have one, sometimes two, trailers attached, and then many passengers have to stand; at peak times every day it is necessary to use trailers.

The buses cannot pull trailers, nor

carry as many passengers as the trams are able to do, so here again the Board is going to lose a large amount of revenue, while the public who elected the Board, are to be put to inconvenience and loss of facilities. No wonder they are setting about these changes not too confidently, no doubt they are not unmindful of the old adage, "Quos Deus vult perdere pruis dementat." —Yours, etc., C. A. TOBIN. Burwood, February 12th, 1930. P.S. —One of those things that no fellow can understand is that although the North Beach line is non-paying, the Board, during the past few years, have been constantly increasing the number of car trips. Years ago, when the system was paying, except at peak times, the service to the Beach from Burwood was an hourly one.' Now there is an half-hour service, and between 7 and 8 a.m. no less than three cars to town. Of course, people would like a car every ten minutes, I would, but there is no need whatever for more than an hourly service between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. Far more economical to let the cars stand, if necessary, at Burwood. —C.T.