INFORMATION ELICITED

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 131, 30 November 1926, Page 10

INFORMATION ELICITED

OPINIONS OF OFFICERS.

The following notes are also supplied by the objectors as netting out information which came to light as the result of the inquiry:— 1. That the original suggestion to convert that portion of the reserve in Kent terrace south of Vivian street was coupled with the plan for parking mo-tor-cars in tho space thus provided. 2. This plan iyis changed later (doubtless after the public interest had been aroused), and the congestion of traffic used as a stalking horse for the alleged necessity for south-bound traffic to use the proposed new strip of roadway (on the reserve side of the northbound tram line) for south-bound vehicular traffic, but the two factors, inconsistent with the scheme, i.e., the "bowsers" on tho footpath and the contingent widening at the point of the Queen Victoria Statue, wera apparently overlooked. The carrying out of this scheme would result, as one of the city councillors said in his evidence at the inquiry, in creating a "death trap." 3. The chief traffic expert of tho City Corporation suggested that vehicular traffic would not traverse this new strip o; street, but that 15ft 6in extra width obtained might be used as a footpath. 4. Though the alleged projected plans involved certain structural alterations in connection with the electric tramways, it is significant that the general manager and engineer of that department had not been .consulted about the scheme. 5. Tho Director of Bcserves of the City Council is averse to the removal of the trees, and suggested that the loss of shelter provided by the trees and plantations would deter flowers from thriving in the garden plots. 6. The proposal for the destruction of the plantation and conversion of part of the recreation reserve into street was not submitted to the Eeserves Committee until after the public protest had been made, the chairman of tho committee being opposed to the sacrifice, being unconvinced of the necessity for interfering with the reserve, and to the loss of Wellington's only boulevard. UNNECESSARY TO SACRIFICE TREES. 7. It is unnecessary to sacrifice the trees in the reserve for the purpose of widening the (formerly) narrow footpath (referred to by Mr. Page ia his report), because' there is a width of 7ft 4in from the edge of the kerb to tho line of cabbage trees. The kerb could be set back lft lOin, thereby giving an ample clearance of 4ft between the tram line and the kerb, and leaving a sft 6'in wide footpath from the kerb to the cabbage trees. The present clearance, when constructed, presumably, conformed to Public Works Department requirements, but is admittedly capable of the improvement indicated above. 8. The Director of Town-planning, in his evidence at the inquiry, expressed the opinion that the traffic proposals wore calculated to increase the risk of accident. 9. Messrs. Gerald Bell, Stuart Wilson, and other experienced motorists stressed the increased risk of accidents arising from the alternation of southbound, north-bound, and south-bound traffic in the same street in the council's proposals, involving the reversal of the council's own bylaws requiring pedestrians and vehicular traffic to "keep to the left." The sub-conscious tendency of tho experienced motorist to draw over to the left, in case of emergency, was also instanced as likely to cause head-on collisions (the most violent and dangerous type of traffic accident) between south-bound moto- vehicles, travelling on the right, when meeting north-bound trams as proposed by the council's scheme. NO ALTERATION ABOUT STATUE. 10. Even if Mr. Page's scheme for two-way traffic in Cambridge terrace (as though they were separate thoroughfares) wero desirable (and no ono but Mr. Page has suggested that retrograde step), it is not feasible, becau-o it is not part of the council's scheme t6 widen Kent terrace or Cambridge terrace at the Quean Victoria Statue, hence Mr. Pag-'a proposal can hardly be regarded as a proper one, even if it is at variance with the City Council's proposal, whhh is not only improper and insincere, but positively dangerous and vicious. 11. The original estimate of accidents in Kent terrace, given to the Minister by a deputation, as approximating one a day, on being reduced to evidence by the police, turned out to be seven in number, reported to the police from Ist January las,t (10J months), whereas tho corresponding number of accident in Cambridge terrace (without tram lines) was 50 per cent, greater or eleven. The Commissioner of Police declinod to furnish comparative figures of accidents in various other streets in the city. "THE MAYOR'S HOBBY." 12. It was illuminating, after an in quiry occupying two full days, during which the City Solicitor endeavoured to justify, on behalf of the Mayor and council, the conversion of part of the reservo into street, solely o- the ground of traffic considerations, to learn from the reported words of Councillor H. D. Bennett, that it was a "hobby" of tho Mayor's and, maintaining hi s metaphor, "we gave him rein and he broke loose," thereby exposing a horse df another gender" to that so successfully driven by Mr. O'Shca. Perhaps a modern metaphor would' have been more apposite, e.g., "We gave him tho steering wheel and throttle and he stepped on the accelerator, and overshot his parking place." Summed up, it would appear that the.

Canal Reservo was to bo encroached upon and converted into a treeless and floworless waste at a cost of thousands of pounds, to provide facilities for parking motor-cars, and that the proposed traffic scheme for Kent terrace was mere camouflage. The question is: What are tho councillors going to do about it? The obvious thing to do is to insist on one-way traffic (both tram and vehicles)-in Kent terrace, and one-way traffic (both trams and vehicles) in Cambridge terrace, thus making the boulevard the widest and safest street in Wellington, preserving the plantations and recreation reserve. It is tramway money that is being spent; therefore let it be spent on shifting the north-bound tram line to Cambridge terrace and make a proper job of it once for all.