NAPIER TRAMWAY SCHEME.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume II, Issue 76, 13 March 1912, Page 2

NAPIER TRAMWAY SCHEME.

CITIZENS’ MEETING. ’ A meeting of Napier citizens interested in the question as to the Corporation tramway scheme which is now being proceeed with was held in the Napier Borough Council Chambers , yesterday afternoon. Mr. R. D. D. McLean was voted to the chair and after a few remarks the meeting was thrown open for discussion. Mr. Fielder said: “As one : df the convenors of this meeting I have been obliged to call it on very short notice. I believe the council meets to-night or to-morrow night't o consider or accept tenders for the tramway system. I may state that last month I wrote to the papers and also to the council concerning the advisability of postponing the acceptance of tenders. Since then tenders have been received. I' am not an engineer and have no interest in gas or motor factories. I have no axe to grind in this matter, and as one of the ratepayers and representing large ratepayers I consider the scheme impracticable. It will be agreed that the, present idea of having a tramway service between the Spit and the railway station would not pay. It would involve a very large expenditure. It hid been said that it was imperative that the tramways must be gone on with as it is connected with the electric lighting and sewage schemes. Such an idea was/t gross unbusincss like transaction. The tramways would be a handicap on the other two. There will be a certain less on the tramwavs and this would handicap both the sewage and lighting. I mooted this question, t rust 'ng that fpme public interest would be taken in this matter and 1 have not been disappointed. I think this meeting should request’ the council to defer acceptance of tenders until they have more information ~.n l until they have a satisfactory scheme. The money can be spent on something else in place of the tramways and the consent of the ratepayers could be obtained for this purpose. There is no doubt that electricity is still in its youth. Matters connected with electricity are improving every day. With’srcfei once to motor buses some had raid that they did not want 20-ton buses going up and down Shakespeare road. No. one contemplated such a thing. We should have such things as were suitable for the place. In such a small place as Napier there was no need for overhead wires; power house and machinery. He would recommend that consideration of the aceptance of tender's should be deferred.’’ Mr. Kinross White, said that regarding the acceptance of tenders for tramways the time was'hot yet. They were most objectionable things. He instanced. ’Wellington, where the trams were going from early morning until late at night. .Many strangers who had come here are glad to get away fro in the whirling trains.

The speaker stated that he had recently been speaking to a man who was considering shifting from Palmerston North to Napier. After carefully considering the loan proposals and the extreme likelihood of increased taxation he decided to remain where he was. This would be the attitude of large numbers of others. He would move : “That the Borough Council be asked <o defer accepting tenders fcr the tramways until the whole question had been further considered by the ratepayers. ’ ’

Mr. H. A. C’ornfoid said he had much pleasure in seconding the ino-r tion. He was not aware of any action being taken in this matter until he saw the advertisement in the newspaper. The people who had voted for the tramway scheme weie now opposed to it. Napier was onte an island within the memory of living man. There were so many turnings and the roads were so nartow and so tortuous that no tramway could be constructed. There was no engineer with an eye to his reputation who would inaugurate a fys,em for tramways on the Napier hills. There was another aspect of the case. There was a laigc number of people who earned a living through making, repairing or driving vehicles. These had, up to the present, suited all requirements. Why should the rates be inci eased 30 per cent, fcr the tramways ’ A motor bus service was the very thing needed. They not want any huge ponderous twodeckers. A motor bus service could be diminished or expanded fiom month to month as was necessary. The tremendous difference, was pointed out that often existed between the estimate made by a competent engineer and the actual cost-of a work. After it was increased to 10. 50 ami sometimes to 100 per cent, on the original estimate. At a picvious meeting one of the councillors had declared hr””'l f vetv much shocked. lie hoped to prove v that shock to the finances, as commonsense ratepayers, uy preventing this proposed scheme from being carried out the people of Napier were not stulifying themselves. He had much pleasure in seconding the motion. Mr. Wmdcrslro’n said that .he scheme under discussion came up when he was a councillor .wo or three years ago. Everyone was then in favour of it. “No! No! The people were under a misapprehension,” interjected Mr. Fielder. “That is your opinion,” replied Mr. Wind erst rom. He could not sec why the public opinion concerning the merits of electricity should alter much in n few years. He did not know wi e l( it ws libel, he bad no money foi libel action, but he had heard it a I th t Mr. George Nelson was the igent f r motor busses. “And ti im il o,” added an interjector. Mr- Win ici i<m said he could not understind vvheic this sudden oppoeH.inn t cl ct i ty had come from. He thought tl at the council should stand to what the public had asked for viz 1 c i < lighting and electric trams. Mr. J. S. Large quoted a wellknown saying about the man who

never changed his opinion and sajd that it would apply in this case. He thought that the council were committing an error by carrying out the tramway scheme, but that there was yet time to correct it. Details concerning the means of locomotion between Lake Windemere and the Lake District were then given. Mr. J. tlriffen said that the present gathering should do something to instruct- the councillors at their meeting to-morrow night. Mr. T. Hyde gave details. concerning the kind of tram between Edinburgh and the Forth bridge. The motion before the meeting was then put. and carried, Mr. Winderstrom being the only dissentient. Mr. McLean said that if the tramways were introduced to Napier it would spoil the finest watering place in New Zealand, if not the finest in the Southern Hemisphere. Mr. Fielder said that this meeting ' would have the effect of altering the decision of the council. . . A vote of thanks to.the chairman concluded the meeting.