TRAMWAY EXTENSIONS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18885, 6 December 1924, Page 12

TRAMWAY EXTENSIONS.

PROTEST FROM MOUNT EDEN.

STATEMENT BY THE MAYOR.

A protest against the 'Auckland City Council's denial that an agreement was made with the Mount Eden Borough Council to undertake tramway extensions in the borough, was voiced by the Mayor of Mount Eden, Mr. E. H. Potter, yesterday.

The facts were, said Mr. Potter, that at a conference of members of the City Council, the Mount Eden Borough Council, and the Mount Roskill Road Board, on October 4, 1923, the delegates of the two bodies agreed to comply with the City Council's requirements that a permanent track be constructed on each side of the tram track. It was then announced that the extensions would be carried out when the Edendale extension had been completed, and also that the work would be finished within a certain time. The Mount Eden ratepayers were accordingly informed of the City Council's definite undertaking, and they accepted the borough council's; loan proposals. Concrete paving in the borough was commenced, the method requested by the Tramways Department being adhered to. The Tramway Committee's appreciation of Mount Eden's action in providing a wall to the concrete paving, continued Mr. Potter, was expressed in a letter dated September 18, 1924, from the Auckland town clerk. In a. letter dated July 7, the Tramways Department stated that it would carry out tramway extension work, involving blasting, in advance of the paving. On November 7 the city solicitors advised the borough solicitors that the City Council would not proceed with the extensions. A request by the Borough Council for a conference was refused, the City Council declining to recognise that Mount Eden had any rights in the matter. " We did not have a document or agreement drawn up in legal form," said Mr. Potter, " but we had the word and declaration of the Mayor of Auckland, backed up by continuous negotiations until a recent date with the Tramways Department, and we had relied on these in good faith in incurring heavy expenditure."