OUR TRAMWAYS AND OTHER PEOPLE'S.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 88, 7 January 1908, Page 6

OUR TRAMWAYS AND OTHER PEOPLE'S.

IMPRESSIONS OF A RETURNED .-TRIPPER. - Mr. J. Ames, City Valuer, has recently been a-tripping, and has returned in tho best of health, having had a most enjoyable time. But there was a fly in the ointment, so to speak. Mr. Ames was unablfe to obtain a car ride in any of the cities he had visited, Sydney, Christcliurch, or Dunedin, to compare, in point, of cheapness, with' those to be obtained , over our own lines. In Sydney, the run out to ," Botany,". a distance of about 11 miles thero and back, cost him one shilling. "Compare this with the rim from Botanical Gardens to Island Bay and back, 13i miles, which costs Gd; return! ' • "In Dunedin,' where, I think, the fares are reckoned at Id. per mile, tho cost of riding oi the cars is from 25 to 50 per cent, higher than in Wellington. The longest section is the run from Nonnanby to St. Clair and back, for which I paid Is. There are no return rates. > "In Christchurch; tho return trip from tho i Square to Sumner costs Is., no reduction being made for return trips. So far as the penny sections were concerned, in none of the cities 1 visited was there any . single section which ,was anything like the run from, say, Cpurtenay Place to the. terminus at Newtown." . Mr. Ames considered that so far as organisation and management were concerned, the Wellington Tramways were superior to' those hu had seen elsewhere. This is not to be interpreted to mean that we have reached the acme of perfection in tramway management,. We have still a good deal to learn, and mnch to do. There is also much usof,ul philosophy wrapt up in that canny old saying "The Lord gie vb a gudo conceit o' oor'sek"