KELBURN TRAM?

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 88, 13 April 1923, Page 5

KELBURN TRAM?

SHOULD THE CITY PURCHASE IT? TO IHI IDIIOR. Sir, —It is an open secret that many Kelburn residents are opposed to me purchase of the Kelburn-Karori^ tramway by the city because they fear that the added Karori and Northland traffic will congest the cars, and make travelling uncomfortable for the Kelburn people. This condition certainly will obtain if, by their efforts to prevent the purchase of the line by the city, the loan proposal is lost. The present company, owing to its agreement with the City Council, has no interest in further developing the line, because one condition of the agreement between the company and the council is that the company's shareholders should not receive more than 7 per cent, on their capital, which is only a mortgage rate of interest; further, in the event of the city declining to purchase the line, the city would doubtless eventually construct another line, which would divide the traffic with the Kelburn Company's line, in which event any money the company might spend would entail a still greater losa. : If the city takes over the Kelburn car, it would electrify it and develop the carrying capacity to accommodate twice as many people as at present, which, according to reliable authority, the line is easily capable of doing without any increase in the overhead expenses; at the same time rates, land and income tax, and directors' fees would cease, thus reducing expenditure. Consider the economic waste in carrying the whole of the Karori and Northland traffic over a route 1£ miles longer than that by the Kelburn tram and Upland road. On the Tinakori road route bvery tramcar —about 12 "tons weight when empty—has to he lifted from Lambton quay, via Tinakori road, to the tunnel, which is 450 feet above sea level; whereas the Kelburn cars, which nre counterbalanced, do all the lifting to the top of the hill for lid per head, the remainder of the journey being over a level road of some 65 chains. The load on the hauling engine of the Kelburn tram is the weight of the passengers only—whether there are two, three, or more cars on each side of the line, they are counterbalanced. No private enterprise would continue carrying people between Lambton quay and the tunnel, via Tinakori road, with the Kelburn r.oute available; why should the City Council be obliged to do so by the action of the ratepayers? And why should people who desire to ,use the Kelburn route be forced to travel by Tinakori road, and pay dearly in time and money? It rests with the ratepayers to remove this injustice. There ■will always be a large number of people to travel by the present route.

From the financial aspect, the purchase of the Kelburn tram, at £45,000, should be one of the best investments the city could enter into. 'The company has paid 7 per cent, for a number of years, but the purchase price shows a 5 per cent, return. If the traffic is increased by SO per cent., it will cost, say, £15,000 for electrification, and the purchase of the necessary new cars and other improvements. Allowing for interest on the £15,000, at 6 per cent., but with no increase in/ overhead expenses, and. without deducting rate's, taxes, and directors' fees, .the tram, would show a profit of over 12 per cent.—nearly double its present profit.

As regards a new route, with the present high rate ..foreland, labour, and materials, it would.probably c05t..£150,000 to construct a similar line to the Kel-burn-Karori tramway. What the ratepayers have to.consider is whether it,-is better to purchase the existing line and develop it to comfortably carry all traffic offering, and bo make a good paying proposition of it, or to vote against th« proposal, and so face a very large expenditure in the gear future for another tramway, which would run in opposition to the present Kelburn tram, and would ■>not pay its way for many years to' come. With the carrying of the poll for water and drainage th& population of Karori will rapidly increase, and with it tbe potential travellers by the Kelburn car. Should the poll for the city to.purchase the Kelburn-Karori tram not be carried, the Kelburn residents I will know where the shoe pinches; for as surely as water will find its way down hill, so surely will a large proportion of the traffic from. Karori and Northland be diverted across Kelburn to the Kelburn car. As before pointed out, th» private company is not at all likely to provide .the necessary accommodation for the ever-increasing traffic. .It behoves the ratepayers, therefore, in their own protection, to put this line into the hands of the City Council by voting. for its purchase on the 26th instant.—l am, etc., \ i ■ j. f. mills; llth April.