THE TRAMWAY QUESTION.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 9855, 24 July 1914, Page 6

THE TRAMWAY QUESTION.

DESIRE TO SEE THE'MATTER ENDED.

The meeting ofcitizens called hy the Progressive League last evening to discuss the tram question and incidentally the alleged inactivity of the Borough Council over the matter was not very largely attended. Mr G. H. Bennett, who presided, in opening, said he had called the meeting In order to see it a little life could not be galvanised into the Borough Council. It wa6 a year and five months since tie Progressive League had started their campaign to endeavour to move the town on. They had decided upon three planks to the§, platform r namely lighting, traction, and baths. Their first duty was to get elected a Council in favour of those three planks. They succeeded, he said, in electing eight out of the nine Councillors who nad shown their sympathy by bringing forward tram proposals and also a proposal for purchasing the gasworks, it had been decided to secure the gasworks, thus establishing one of the League's planks, but there were two other planks that had to be dealt with yet. The Council had brought forward the Edison storage battery system after having apne into a number of systems thoroughly. The engineer (Mr Jickell) had ' seen that system working in Gisborne, and he had favoured it. Then Mr Harris, the Edison expert came along, and because he could not fulfil certain guarantees, the scheme was thrown out. The speaker said he did not know why the Council could not have adopted the scheme before Mr Harris appeared on the scene. Mr Harris's not being able to make the guarantees desired by the Council, did not condemn the scheme. Mr Bennett then touched on the proposal of the Australian Company to inetaf a service, but that, he said, was dropped very quickly. Now another suggestion about a committee going into the matter and visiting places was before the Council. The speaker said he favoured the Edison battery system which would enable the town to have electric lighting in conjunction with traction. The element of cost was very small, and even if the Edieqn cars did not prove a sueeess the loss would not be great, because the Council would only have to place in poles and run an overhead system on the linjes in their stead. "What were the people going to do now, askpd Mr Bennett. Tney certainly should ronse tlie Council up. The Council, he thought, were tackling the matter rather childishly and not in a business-like manner at all. ~Mr Bennett then left the matter to the meeting for discussion. Mr J. Wallace said he considered it was time the Council was pricked up to get something done. The fact that the ratepayers had endorsed a proposal for an electric syafeem showed-that they desired it. They had put a Council in whom they thought would move in the matter, but apparently they were not going to do so. He could not xmderstand the delays that were going on. He asked where the fault lay. In a private business one would look to the manager for an answer to that question, and similarly, the speaker said he blamed Ae Mayor in this case for a lot that had not been done. He thought they should call on the Council to bring the matter to "an end. The Edison system had been investigated and found to be good, and it- had only been dropped becauee Mr Harris did not give certain guarantees. The speaker thought the guarantees were all that a business man could possibly give. Mr Wallace said he consid-ej-ii'the Edison system valuable because lighting could be obtained at the same time. "I can't understand it at all," said Mr Wallace. ''l would like to propose as a resolution that we call a bigger meeting than this to discuss the matter. This meeting has not been advertised enough, Aid the people ought to be enthused in the matter." Mr then moved: "That this meeting of supporters of the Progressive League calls upon the executive to convene a mass meeting of citizens to protest against the delay in the installation of electric tramways by the Town Council, the great majority of whom have been elected to see. this proposal carried to a practical issue." Mr Fincham seconded the motion. Or. Crabb said he thought there had been some slight misunderstanding as to his position in moving that a committee of the Council be sefc up to visit places and see other schemos working. The position of the Qwmcil was due to the fact that while the majority were in favour of trams, they were hopelessly divided in respect of the motive power. •The speaker said he had taken up the stand from the first that until the Edison system had been thoroughly tested, ft' would be a grave matter to put before the ratepayers a proposal for a scheme to cost nearly £IOO,OOO when, if proved satisfactory, another scheme would only cost £55,000. He would not support the overhead system ifcider those circumstances. There was/ he said, more loss with the overhead system costing between Is 2d and Is 3d per mile to run than with a system costing only about lOd per mile. Cr. Crabh said he thought the Edison scheme haß b*«* turned down rather hurriedly, but ho was not gt>ing to criticise the Council. He thought the Council might send three members to, say, Melbourne, one who was in fa%nir of the overhead system, one in favour of, say, motor buses and the other who favoured another system. Then "ihen these three men reported, he thought the people might take their verdict as the rfght one. And when the town was contemplating such a huge expenditure, the little extra expense that his proposal would entail, Cr. Crabb considered should not be looked upon seriously. That was the only way he could see of getting the Council unanimous on a scheme, and he did not believe the town would look at a scheme which the Council did not approve of as a whole. Referring to other steps the Council had taken Cr. Crabb said that the gasworks would soon be in the possession of the Council, and the bslths loan would be before the public very shortly. He said he believed that if Sir Harris had not come along and offered things which really hypnotised the Council, the Edison battery cars would have been installed in Palmerston North already. The Council, the speaker also stated, had given the tramway matter a great deal of thought, and they did not want to make a mistake. Rather than that it would be better to wait a month or two. He said he fully believed the Council would come to a conclusion on the subject in a month or two. A gentleman from the audience, who announced himself as a stranger, thought it would pay the Borough for a time to go in for an inexpensive motorbus, service. Had the matter been giveti serious thought, he asked. The motorbuses had proved a success in other towns-, and Palmerston North was a toVn which could not be served efficiently by trams. The speaker referred to the possibility with motor-buses, of changing the routes if one did not pay, and also said that the buses would find out which were the payable routes if the ratepayer desired trains later. He thought thejforough should go into the 1 there were 4©*ißstreets, the trams i migfii i»j but even in Wel- ''■': lington, the City Opuncil. was going to raSe motor buses to feed the trams. Tfcr lenheti stated t&t ifrwas signiicant in the face of that, that Wellington was still extending ite tramways. The motion was put to the meeting * and -carried, mad the cnairjnan stated

feet to, if nothing sfetantial eventuated at the Ocrancn nreeting on Tuesday, when the train queatioa is to wme up for discussion. *\;/ A letter giving his views on ■■ to the meeting.