TRAMWAY EXTENSION.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXX, Issue 14977, 24 April 1909, Page 11

TRAMWAY EXTENSION.

'XO THE EDITOR. Sir.—l am glad to see your.correspondent, Mr Guise Brittau, pointing out that by far the greater settlement on the hill has taken, and will take, place on the Dyer's Pass Bead, and adjacent thereto. Fortunately, Mr G. Booth, one of the members of the Board, is residing on the hills' at present, and'his clear statement regarding the position of tram routes for the hill should be sufficient to satisfy the public mind on this question. The Hacjvthorne Road route is wholly out of court as a business proposition, and the Tramway Board having realised this in time has taken tho only course open to it, i.e., allowing the proposals for tramway extension to be voted on separately, so that this Hackthorna Road proposal may not imperil the other sections of its extension proposals. Mr Booth is perhaps correct when he Bays that the time is scarcely ripe for the extension up the Dyer's Pass Boad. It may be so, but if this is the c&fio then the residents on tho hills are entitled to some concession in the fares, as the Board admits the injustice of charging for three miles when the distance is only two and a half. I hope this matter will receive attention.—l am, etc., RESIDENT. TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —Will you allow mc- a. little space to deal quickly with one of the mi<?taken statements made in Mr Guise Britten's letter under this heading;? Mr Brittau says tho present service to Cashmere Hills could not be extended to Hackthorao Road by the cars now running, " as there is only juefc time during the fifteen minutes' service to reverse the trolley pole at the terminus." Mr Brittan has quite overlooked tho facts that there are two termini, and that the Tramway Board publish a time-table. Duo consideration being paid to these facts, it will be found that, disregarding all stowages of two 1 minutes and under, no less -than 3SO ' minutes are wasted every week-day at one terminus) or the other. These 380 minutes are very evenly spread through tho day—l 42 in tho morning, 124 in the afternoon and 114 in the evening. When the fifteen-minute service is running every tram between 2.30 and 7.30 stays seven minutes at Edgeware Bond. With a readjustment of the time-table that 380 minutes could be made to give thirty-five trips to the Hackthorne Boad and back, the distance being taken as 110 chains and the rate of travelling, allowing for stoppages, as 7j miles an hour. This correction is very important in view of the gross misrepresentations of the cost of running this extension. Mr Brittan's other hasty statements are all equally capable of disproof, but as it takes far more space to disprove an erroneous statement than to make it, I shall have to ask space to deal with them in a future h=isue.—l am, etc.. WESTWARD HO. TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —As a recent resident on the Cashmere Hills I have read with considerable interest tbe correspondence which has appeared in your columns on this subject. Any unbiassed observer must admit tho existing position is a most unsatisfactory one, so far as tho Hackthorne Road district is concerned. Your able correspondents, Mr Harman, " Westward Ho," and others have amply demonstrated that fact. To my "thinking, the contention of your correspondent, W. Guise Brittan, that the proposed extension should be up Dyer's Pass Boad, instead of to the Hackthorne Road, and ultimately up that road, is, on the face of it, not only an absurdity, but, if carried out, would result in an unpardonable waste of public money, as well as a very serious injustice to a large section of the local and general public having interests westward of the present tram terminus. That has, however, already been made quite clear. In my opinion. Mr Guise Brittan would have displayed better judgment if he had eliminated from his letter tho words, " There is } no probability of much building on. either side of the road from the pre- | sent terminus to the bottom of the Hackthorne Boad," etc. He writes as though the whole hill population is to be confined to tho Dyer's Pass. Road. \ I can assure that gentleman there is , every probability in the near future of i

extensive building operations, not only in respect to the Hackthorne Road, but round about the district, and that there' 1 are some who, like myself, are awaiting tho decision of the Tramway Board in this matter, to put into practical operation building plans To run the line via Dyer's Pass Road would be a grave mistake. For one thing, the cost would be prohibitory, and the ratepayers would certainly object to it. That objection does not apply to the Hackthorne Road, for the grade is a very easy one. This, however, could be work for the future, and doubtless would be undertaken with the ulterior view of running the tram on to Victoria. Park.—l am, etc., E.O.L.