WAITEMATA HARBOUR BRIDGE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19698, 26 July 1927, Page 12

WAITEMATA HARBOUR BRIDGE.

Sir, —The prospect of finding anything up to a million pounds for this project is one that may rightly cause our authorities to hesitate and business men to doubt. In my opinion a free bridge, unless financed by valuable reclamations, is neither necessary nor justified. There is an alternative, the prospects of which are so promising that they deserve our immediate attention. In Canada and America, the growth of the motor industry has created a demand for bridges in many places where local and Government resources are quite inadequate to provide free bridges. Private capital has stepped in and built a large number of toll bridges and on the principle that the user pays, a great public utility has bemme possible on a very small toll charge. On these lines, but with capital for which the municipalities concerned are alone responsible, a bridge was built across Vancouver Harbour in 1925 and the conditions are so similar to those in Auckland that the results give a very valuable basis of comparison. The population served by the Vancouver Bridge, namely, the North Vancouver suburbs, is 15.000. There is no back country. An up-to-date municipal ferry service, both passenger and vehicular,, serves the district, and in spite of the fact that the bridge is a much less direct route, a daily average of 4962 persons and 1803 vehicles crossed it in 1926. On a toll averaging lid for persons, 4d per motorcar, and Is for trucks, the company earned £75 per day in 1926. The following comparisons are aimed at discovering the revenue ratio between Vancouver Bridge actually in use in 1926, and Waitemata Bridge in use in 1934. The estimated figures for 1934 will undoubtedly prove to be on the conservative side.

Population of North Vancouver in 1926, 15.000. No back country served by Vancouver Bridge. Population Vancouver City and suburbs, 1926, 250,000. Motor Registrations Vancouver City, 1926, 22,000. Cost of Vancouver Bridge, 1925, £380,000. Cosit per day, 1926, £B4; revenue per day, 1926, £ls.

Population of North Shore boroughs in 1934 , 85,000. Population of North Auckland outside the four boroughs in 1934,, 75,000. Population of Auckland City and suburbs, 1934, 275,000. Motor registrations Auckland district, 1934, 60,000. Cost of Woitemata Bridge. 1934, £600,000 to £1.000,000. Cost of Waitemata Bridge, £l5O to £2OO per day. Revenue per day, 1934, £175 to £250.

IF 20,000 Vancouver motor registrations in 1926 cause a traffic valued at £75 a day in serving 15,000 people, with no back country, is it not reasonable to assume that 60,000 Auckland registrations in 1934, serving a borough population of 35,000. and a back country of 75,000, will earn three times that amount, on the same toll. If this is a reasonable assumption, wo can look forward to a yearly revenue of £70,000 to £BO,OOO, and oiir bridge is self-supporting, on a toll which is about one-third of the present vehicular charges. It may be argued that Canadian motoring is so much more developed than ours, that comparisons are valueless, but I am informed by the Canadian Trade Commissioner, to whom I am indebted for many''of the above figures, that British Columbia has lagged far behind the rest of Canada as regards the motor industry and this is evident by the . comparative equality of Auckland and Vancouver motor registrations to-day, both slightly over 20.000. For a toll bridge to pay it must not be so far up the harbour as to lose the revenue of the North Shore peninsula, and on the other the main road to the North comes to the back } of Birkenhead. Given the right position, I believe we can proceed with our bridge on a toll basis and relieve both Government and local authorities of all financial burden, except the preliminary one. M. BI.AMMCEI>.: i <l2* Berarfo/d Ba^Eswafcej^