NO MORE TRAMS

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 99, 23 October 1936, Page 8

NO MORE TRAMS

(To the Editor.) Sir.-I have read a letter signed "Progress" in your columns, and theie is a great deal more to be saicMhan •■Progress" ventures upon against any more tramways being laid down an the city If I recollect aright, the Mayor told the Mornington-and Vogeltown that the motor-bus and the trolley-bus .were cheaper to install than trams and Such more comfortable, speediery and more reliable as a means of transport. I notice that the Mayor^had also admitted that £70,000 had been spent m preparing the Sydney Street route for tomwayi, but the genial manager of the tramways has told us that only £21000 of that was for expenditure on the 'road to make it fit for tramways, and that it was going to cost another £30,000 to lay the tram tracks, etc. That being so, and this expenditure is intended to save £2000 a year m running costs, there will be a loss on a 5 per cent/basis of at least £500 a year. I think that there will be more than that, because immediately that extra tram route is completed the Karori people will clamour for a reduction in the fares and that on the genera! manager's estimate will be Inything over £500 a year, so that to save four minutes of time : for the Karori people there will- be a dead loss of over £1000 a year and the tramways are not paying too well^as it is. Indeed, we have suffered losses on our tramway services during the past' few years and the revenue has fallen by about £60,000 as compared with what it was ten years ago. I agree that the Mayor is on the right lines. No more tram tracks should be laid in:this city. In fferarparte already, Willis Street outstandingly so tramcars are continuously blocking the traffic. When other methods jrt transport are cheaper to install and cheaper to run, the only conclusion that I can come to as a citizen is that there should be no more trams.—l am, etC" CHEAPER TRANSPORT. The Education Committee of the House of Representatives has^ returned the Education Amendment Bill with its final clause deleted. It provided that officers of the public service engaged as teachers in the education service in schools under the control of the Education . Department, should come under the control of the Minister, and that the staffing of these special schools and the rates of salary should be subdect' to-regulation* • ■■ -■ " ■