Evening Post. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1908. WADESTOWN TRAMWAY.

Evening Post, Volume LXXV, Issue 41, 18 February 1908, Page 6

Evening Post. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1908. WADESTOWN TRAMWAY.

When Wadestown, after being unequally yoked with Khaiidallah and Kaiwarra for many years as a ward of the Borough of Onslow, succeeded in securing amalgamation with Iho city as from tho beginning of April last, it was a condition of the arrangement that the city engineer should report upon tho best modo of connecting the city with its new territory within six months from that date. As the report was only published yesterday, having been jus*, a month in the hands of tho City Council, the time allowed has been exceedod by more than four months. But it is to be hoped that the extiaordinary calls which there ( have recently been upon tho time and energies of the city engineer will be accepted by the mo:>t ardent Wadestonian as a sufficient justification of the delay which has taken place. Now that tho report is before them tho people of Wadestown will doubtless be 1 pleased to find that the expert verdict substantially confirms what appeared to be the popu* lar choice when the matter was the subject of a keen agitation some eighteen months ago. Several of the six alternative routes submitted for the consideration of the Onslow Borough Council by the New Zealand Electrical Construction Company are summarily rejected by the city engineer and the city electrical j engineer, who have joined in tho production of the present report, on the ground that any scheme involving the combination of cable and electric systems, and necessitating one or more changes of cars, was self-condemned By this process of elimination the report reduces the possible alternatives to three- : I — (1) The "D" route, as it has been hitherto called, which, starting from the present terminus on tho Thorndon Esplanade, would climb the hill frontage of the Rhodes Estate almost to its most northerly point aoovo Kaiwarra, and thenco make in a south-westerly direction at the back of the hills to the main Wadestown-road ; (2) a tunnel through the Tinakori Hills from Grantroad, Thorndon, to Woodward's Gully, on tho Wadestown main road ; and (3) a route following the general direction of the main road, and connecting with the city system at or near the junction of Tinakori-road aijd Moles-worth-strect. With regard to tho first two of these schemes it is perfectly clear that neither could he seriously ■entertained on its own merits without substantial aid from some other source than the ordinary revenue of a tramway. The "D" route would be primarily for the benefit of the Rhodes Estate, which it would traverse twice, and for the i>opulation of Wadestown in its present distribution would involve a costly and inconvenient detour ; and in inspect both of cost and of inconvenience the tunnel scheme would be still more objectionable. If tho "D" route is to- become an accomplished fact, the Rhodes Ttustees will havo to do as other landowners havo often done with a far smaller interest at stake, and bear a large part of the burden of what would enoimously enhance tho value of their property. Indeed, when ono considers the enormous area of land which is here locked up within the boupdaries of tha most congested city in the Dominion, serving no public purposo beyond the payment of heavy rates and taxes on its unimproved value, and 1 for the most part at least equally useless for any privato purpose, it seems deplorable that public spirit and private interest cannot combine to open up the estate and make it pioductive all round. But the people of Wadestown may have a long time to wait for their tramway if it is to bo contingent .upon any arrangement with the trustees, and the engineers at any rate could not deal- with it in their estimates. The tunnel scheme is even more helpless in its dependency upon outsido assistance than the "D" route. If the city or the Government were to acquire tho whole 'of the valley at the back of the Tinakori Range, a tramway tluough the proposed tunnel would bring within fifteen minutes of the centre ol the city an area of land at present inaccessible, but both larger and better adapted for building aites than any now available for our crowded population; Here is a splendid opening for municipal enterprise in the near future, but Wadestown may well expect to do something on it« own account first. The relative costliness of the threo schemes is quite conclusive in favour of Ihe engineers' choice under present conditions. Tho tunnel scheme would cost £64,000, which, of courso, makes it absolutely impossible unles3, as we say, the city has first acquired the hundreds of acres of rural land, which would thius at one stroke be converted into city lots. For the "D" route £35,000 would be required ; and though less inconvenient for Wadestown than the tunnel, it would hardly be worth" considering unless the landowners would find something near half of this amount. What may be called the Main-road route, though it woidd climb the greater part of the Wadestown Hill through the Town Belt and. tho Queen's Park, instead of on the road itself as originally suggested, would require the comparatively modest outlay iof £25,000. Yet even this amount would be a sufficiently serious burden according to the engineers' figures, for they put the working at £1368 against receipts totalling £1687, a deficit of £281, to which £1375 has to be added for interest and sinking fund and £687 for depreciation. It certainly looks to us as though the estimates have not erred upon the sanguine side, but tho Wadestown ratepayers should be prepared, at 1 any rate at first, for a deficit of close on £2000. Are they prepared to face this risk? or will prudence make them prefer to remain content with the possession of the most beautiful but the most stagnant suburb of Wellington?