TRAM FARES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXIII, Issue 13712, 1 April 1905, Page 13

TRAM FARES.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —Through the medium of your valuable paper, permit me to endorse the opinions of “ Old Resident,” as a further protest against the exorbitant increase in tram fares to Sumner proposed, and probably determined on, by the Board. Some months ago Mr AY. ..Reece, of the Tramway Board, addressed a meeting in Sumner on tramway matters. He took us in the spirit, so to speak, from the asthmatic, stuttering monstrosity that has inflicted grievous bodily harm on the public for yeans, to the “ seventh heaven ” of an ideal tramway system. AVe were to whizz down here in twenty-three minutes; we could oven get home to lunch; we were no more to shed dust and cinders on our doorsteps; and the golden age ot travelling was to begin this coming April, or thereabouts. AVhen Mr Reece’s eloquence had spent itself on these delights, a practical-minded resident brought him down with a heavy thud to the question of fares. Mr Reece, in reply, stated that the yearly and monthly tickets would be continued at the then prevailing rates, and that the ordinary fares would he cheapened; in short, that the new service would bo in every way a great improvement on the present one. And now' wo find that a great and unjustifiable increase is to be made all round. But some more of the Tramway Board and Mr Reece. The latter appeared before us as the accredited_ re- . presentativo of the Board. He spiked his statement of the fares -into our minds with absolute assurance. As a result, there are people in Sumner -who bought property at-a value enhanced by Mr Reece’s' statements. There are others holding on to property, expecting a demand increased on account of Mr Reece’s assurance of a cheapened service. There are others who intend leaving, and many more w'ho will stay away because of the increases. All these people suffered under the delusion that the Board’s word was »s good as its bond, for, morally, Mr Reece s promise was the Board’s; his private opinion; did not interest us. In other centres, the introduction ot electric traction has invariably reduced fares, and if Sumner is to be burdened as proposed, it behoves the residents to arrange for motor buses, and let the Board derive a scanty revenue from noisy and often bibulous holiday trippers. The loss of a steady revenue would, like the breach of faith, be the Board’s.—l Sumner, March 27.