EASTERN SUBURBS NEW TUNNEL

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 92, 20 April 1931, Page 6

EASTERN SUBURBS NEW TUNNEL

(To tho Editor.) Sir, — In the report o£ the meeting of electors held at Hataitai, Councillor Gaudin sidled that, in hi« opinion, it did not, matter if the trams never ran throufili the new tunnel and that it was constructed for a. "traffic" . tunnel. U is proverbial that the iniblio memory is short, and lioiv in (lie lapse of time views can be twisted, and this is a good example. \Vhen the original proposal was sub-.

mittcd by the late Mr. Morton prior to the Great Wnr and also at the time the 1021 proposals were submitted to the electors motor-cars were not so much in evidence and motor buses were practically unknown so far as Wellington was concerned, therefore the use of the word, "traffic" as then used had a wider meaning than some would now restrict it to. It was distinctly understood that the tunnel was to give easier and quicker access to the outer districts, and trams at that time were, and now are, the principal means of, travel of the great majority of the residents, and it was generally then accepted that the proposal was to provide for trams being run through the tunnel. I would like to remind Mr. Gaudin that ho was elected to serve the interests of "the electors generally, and not to push bis own ideas. The tunnel has always been a burning question with not only myself but • thousands of others living over this side: of the hill. It is absurd to think that the long distance travellers to Miramar, Scatoun/and Lyall Bay will bo content for ever to be hauled painfully through Newtown and over the Constable street hill'when a shorter and easier route is available, and trams are the only solution to meet {he needs of nine-tenths bl the- residents. • Especially at peak load times is this evident. . For months past certain people nave been posing as leaders of public opinion on this side 'of the hill, and by frequent repetition of their anti-tramway views are trying to make folk believe that this attitude is general. It is nothing of the sort, but in view of the City Council's resolution to proceed with tke p tram proposals, those favourable to the trams, relying on the council's boria fides, didn't bother to refute the ill-considered statements of.'the few. . ■ i . There are over 25,000 (1 people now resident on the. eastern side o£ Mt. Victoria (and the number is rapidly increasing), and these have been waiting patiently for the relief from the daily wearisome double journey and loss o£ time now entailed which was anticipated when the new tunnel is brought into usej and their convenience cannot be lightly put aside. It behoves every elector.. fa this outer district to carefully scrutinise the attitude on this subject of those standing for the council.—l am, etc., < DAILY'TRAVELLER.