WADESTOWN TRAM.

Evening Post, Volume LXXII, Issue 112, 8 November 1906, Page 8

WADESTOWN TRAM.

THE POSITION.

The much-debated subject of the TVadestown tram will be discussed by the Onfiiow Borough Council at a special ■meeting, convened by the Mayor, this evening. The position is, to say the least, peculiar. At a poll taken a little while ago a majority of the ratepayers of the south ward of the borough (which is Wadestown) decided in favour of raising a loan of £28,500 for the purpose of j constructing an electric tramway to that : suburb. ' I lUe topographical peculiarities of the other portions of the borough preclude them irom participating in the benefits ( <rf the new line, and, naturally, they • vere concerned as to their liability. The t'^ith ward exponents of the tramway scheme proposed (in addition to the ordinary rate in connection with the loan) to rate the ward to the extent of l^d j additional to repay the estimated loss on •working exp^ii-sea. Such a rate would produce a little over £600, but the other two wards contend that the loss may reasonably be expected to be much in ex. cess of that auiount, and it is understood that legal opinions from experts on municipal law are that the other two wards ■will be»equally liable for any deficiency ' that may arwa, besides being liable for j the loan itself. While another opinion is that the provision made for interest and j sinking fund will not be sufficient to redeem the loan at maturity. These points htive been discussed at length at meetings held at various places m tho borough, and a considerable amount of feeling has been raised. Wittt regard to this evening's meeting of the council, the position ie interesting. | It is presumed that some councillor for the south ward who is in favour of the tramway proposal will move that steps be taken to give elfeet to the poll, at which the loan proposals were carried. Seeing that the majority of the council represents wards which are averse to the tramway proposal, there doe» not appear to be much prospect of such a motion being carried, and, of course, if the motion is not carried, the loan poll will be rendered useless. In addition, however, it appears that in any case the council has to wait for a petition from the majority of the ratepayers of the south ward Agreeing to rate themselves ai extra l^d to cover any deficit that may arise in ■working the tramway. Such a majority ■would be 155 out of the 308 ratepayers on the roll, and as only 113 voted at the ■poll in favour of the tramway loan, the opponents of the movement anticipate that there will be a difficulty in obtaining the necessary number of signatures. The argument, of course, will be. that it is useless taking any further steps in the tramway proposals until all the preliminaries have been completed, and it looks at present as if the meeting will result in ,Tery little progress being made.

As to-morrow will be King's Birthday no out-palients will be received at the hospital. The heavy downpour of rain between 2 and 3 o'clock this afternoon was responsible for the formation of a omall la.ke in front of the Government Building* on Lambton-quay. It was feared that the cellara of those buildings would become flooded, but fortunately the rain stopped in time.