THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS FRIDAY, AUGUST 12, 1927. THE TRAMWAYS POLL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19713, 12 August 1927, Page 10

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS FRIDAY, AUGUST 12, 1927. THE TRAMWAYS POLL.

In anticipation of next week's vote on the proposed £500,000 loan for • tramway extensions and purposes incidental to them, members of the City Council are actively campaigning for it. The tone of the meetings shows that in the minds of citizens are many questions that must be answered before grave doubts about the wisdom of the loan are removed. The basis of the feeling is probably recognition that whatever shifts may subsequently be made in transport policy, the city is being asked to commit itself to the borrowing of a large sum for which interest and sinking fund must be found regardless of the outcome of its expenditure. If the system in its extended form is really put •on a profit-making basis, the loan will be no burden. If not,, the charges for it must inevitably fall on the rates. If the new policy of fares and sections fails to produce the results forecasted, it can easily be varied. Indeed, it is to be on trial for six months. But if the extensions contemplated do not prove profitable, they cannot be abandoned, nor can the money involved be returned to the lenders. The ratepayer will have to fill the breach. This year has seen a small increase in rates. The weight of the levy has been increased much more substantially by a rise in valuations. The level now reached places on the average citizen just as heavy a burden as he can carry. The revenue yielded should be sufficient for the needs of the city with the practice ,of proper economy. There is no justification in present circumstances for risking any addition which citizens do not want, which they will not tolerate. There is the test by which the loan must be tried. Can the ratepayers of the city feel absolutely assured that approval of this loan does not involve the risk of a fresh call on the rating revenue 1 It has already been said that the campaign in support of the loan has not produced a sufficient statement of tramway finance, or rather transport finance, for the current financial year. There have been assurances that the revenue is substantially higher than it was this time last year; in fact, the actual amount has been given in round figures. It is a promising indication, but a balance-sheet cannot be drawn up, or even guessed at, on statements of revenue alone'. When a reasonably complete statement covering the losses, past, present or prospective, on omnibus services, the state of the tramway revenue, in fact, the general condition of transport finance, has been made, it will be possible for the community most concerned to judge the merits of the loan proposal. At present, too •much is being demanded on the unsupported judgment of the council. Without disputing the bona fides of either the Tramways Committee or the council, the ratepayers are entitled to demand all the facts before giving the verdict. They are the jury, and should be given the evidence. The present method of campaigning for the loan is like asking the jurymen to reach their conclusion more on the addresses of counsel than on the facts of the case. The real point on which -doubting citizens require to be convinced is whether the proposals involved, whatever their abstract merits, are timely. There has been a significant development in policy, a readjustment of sections, of sufficient magnitude to prove that transport conditions are in a state of flux. Prudence .surely suggests waiting to see, with reasonable certainty, what will crystallise out before making so grave a decision as that involving the expenditure of half a million pounds. The council, on the advice of its Tramways Committee, is altering its administrative policy tentatively, yet it wants firm authority for a serious increase in capital liability. • The foolishness of being too precipitate, the wisdom of waiting to watch developments—and Auckland can afford to wait —is supported by much more than the actual conditions in this part of the world. Passenger transport is full of problems and questions in other places beside Auckland, or New Zealand either, for that matter. The council is quite ripht when it says that the tramear has not by any means been proved obsolescent. It is on even sounder ground when it insists that the petrol'driven motor-omnibus, unwieldy in crowded streets, diffi cull of operation over short sections, and loaded with an appallingly high depreciation rate, has not, by a great deal, proved itself as the transport medium of the future. Nevertheless, it has certain qualities which make it a formidable competitor with railed traffic. There is a close analogy in the competition between the motor-lorry and the railway. More experience has to be gained before • the respective spheres of rail and

rail-less transport have been exactly defined. In cities of the size to which Auckland is rapidly growing the possibilities of electrified suburban railways have also to be counted. Thus, on the wide, as well as the narrower, view, this is a transition period in which fresh capital liabilities cannot be embarked upon without the most careful consideration, or without great caution. To restrict the case to Auckland conditions again, the fact that a substantial proportion of the money involved is really for the provision of services outside the city limits makes it all the more necessary that the ratepayers should think seriously before endorsing the case for the loan which is being pressed upon them so assiduously by the council.