NEW TRAMWAY POLICY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19719, 19 August 1927, Page 14

NEW TRAMWAY POLICY.

Sir, —The City Council makes a great pretence of virtue by the elimination of the twopenny minimum trrm fare, but this is 'counterbalanced by the shortening of sections. The most vicious provision of the new scale of fares, however, is the penalising of all those ratepayers who have been hardy enough to move away from the centre of the city to the beautiful suburbs, which have rapidly become the pride of Auckland. This mistaken policy will undoubtedly lead to a congestion in the city and will severely throw back the tendency of late years to travel further out and to obtain homes with breathing space in healthy surroundings. "Mr. Allum has repeatedly asked for constructive criticism. Well, may I suggest that we follow the enlightened example of our rival city, Wellington, which has adopted a universal maximum fare, with, I understand, wonderfully good results. I am glad to see that one-piece of constructive criticism or suggestion that emanated from Remuera has been adopted, namely, the running of through buses from the termini at rush hours. The Tram whys Committee, in its report, plaintively remarks that a commercial undertaking, in'view of the losses which have occurred as a result of the competition, would have met the position by passing dividends, and that this the tramway undertaking cannot do. The obvious answer is that the tramway undertaking is not at any tirr« called upon to pay dividends, nor income tax, and. yet cannot show a profit. T would suggest that a commercial undertaking would not only pass dividends, but would also most vigorously overhaul overhead costs'" and running expenses, which the City Council has not yet done. It is pathetic that a public undertaking, having secured a monopoly and being in the enviable position of being able to extort from its customers its own price, still cannot give very much promise of showing a profit in spite of the fact that its customers will groan under its heavy impositions. There is a limit to the amount the harassed, ratepayer can pay, and he 'will either have to walk or herd his family into a flat or a boarding house within reasonnble distance of his place of occupation. Talnes of all properties beyond third sections will drop and the alreadv swollen values of city properties will still further increase* and if the present considered policy of the council is persisted in, Auckland will never be more than a secondrate city. Wttjfrtd Skegg.