ELECTRIC TRAMWAYS

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4306, 15 March 1901, Page 7

ELECTRIC TRAMWAYS

EXPENDITURE OF £224,345 PROJECTED. REPORT OF THE TRAMWAYS COMMITTEE. AN ADDITION OF £55.000 FOR STREET PAVING, ATTEMPT TO DEFER CONSIDERATION. The Tramways Committee of tho City Council brought down its report on electric traimway traction at last night’s meeting of the Council. The report, as will bo seen, agrees in the main details with the outlines published in yesterday morning’s “Times.” It is as follows : Tho committee beg to send herewith a copy of the City Engineer’s report, in which he has gone exhaustively into the whole question of mechanical traction. Ho recommends the adoption of the overhead trolley system, as being cheapest in construction; most economical in maintenance and -working cost, and interfering least with the streets. The advantages and disadvantages of the electrical conduit, and the cable systems are fully set out in the report. The proposals are : 1. To relay and equip tho existing line between Thermion and Newtown, the whole to be laid as a double track.

2. To adopt the railway gauge of 4ft Biin, instead of the present gauge of 3ft 6in. 3. To construct extensions to Island Bay, Oriental Bay, Upper Willis street and along Webb street to Taranaki street, north end of Thorndon quay, anil along Molesworth street and Tinakon road to the Botanic Gardens. 4. To construct and equip a power generating station at a site to be decided upon. The estimated cost of these works is put down as under; 1. Equipment of present route. £ Permanent way and equipment 85,850 Oars ... ... ... ... 16,000 Car sheds, etc 0,000 Total ... ... ... ... 110,850 2. Extensions as above noted: Lines and equipment ... . 55,300 Cars ... ... ... ... 5.500 Car sheds, etc. ... ... ... 4,200 Total ... ... v... ... 66,000 3. Power generating station* : Land 2,100 Buildings ... ... . ... 8,000 Machinery and plant 17,000 Total ... ... . . 27,100 To this the committee recommend the addition of 10 per cent, for coutii>g‘'ncies,; 20,395 Grand total ... . . 224,345 The City Engineer also gives an estimate of the cost of pavng with wood blocks outside the tramway track the portions of the streets along whi.li (he tramway now runs (that is from Davis street to Horner street). Tins is put down at £53,610. The committee recommend that the matter be placed bef ire the ratepayers, and that they be asked to sanction a loan of £225,000 for the tramway lines and equipment, as set out in the report. The committee also recommend that a separate vote be taken on the question of a loan of £55,000 for paving the streets along the tramline with wooden blocks. The Mayor (as chairman of the Tramways Committee) moved the adoption of the report. ■ Councillor McGill' protested against the Council being called upon to discuss the report. He said they had not had time to consider it. He moved, “That consideration of the report be deferred for a week/’ Councillor Winder seconded the amendment.

Councillor Izard vehemently opposed any further delay. He said Councillors had known what was going on for weeks past, and were sufficiently well seized of all the requisite information to enable them to debate the question. The report was brimful of information, which should be given to the ratepayers at the earliest possible date. He did not want to ‘ ram it down Councillor Winder’s mouth” nor “give it to Councillor McGill to eat,” but the majority of the Coujncil was in favour, of it. Even if the Councillors referred to wanted to postpone it for reasons best known to themselves, the majority would prevail. Besides, the report must be in the hands of the press, because a very good outline of it had already appeared .in that morning’s “New Zealand Times.” He did not know how it got there —. The Mayor : Double sight!

Councillor Izard said one did not want double sight to read good type-written matter. Anyhow, the matter had been made public, and that was an additional reason why it should be considered at once. He moved in that direction. Councillor Barber seconded the amendment, and said the matter ought to be debated in public. This course was agreed upon, and the report read. The Mayor said it was quite evident from all the evidence that bad oome to the committee in reference to different systems that the overhead trolley system was the best and cheapest that could be adopted in Wellington. The first work it was proposed to undertake in connection with the new system was the construction of a double line of rails from Thomdon to Newtown, because it was between these places that the largest section of the population would be served. The adoption of the double line would facilitate traffic, prevent street i blockages sncn as occurred with ‘ the | present system, and enable the trams | to be run at a good rate of speed. [ Widening the gauge would prevent os. cillation, and make tram-riding comfort:ablei Having made the main lines, ex I tensions would 1 be thrown out in the manner indicated. They would, of course, , have to face a difficulty in going outside | their own boundaries to Island Bay, but | the tramway was wanted by the resij dents in that locality, and he (Mr Aitken) anticipated no difficulty in dealing jwith the Melrose Council. It was proposed to run put, to Oriental Bay to ! serve the population as far as Roseineath. Their him in making the other ! extensions contemplated was to serve large sections of . population which at present had no traction facilities. After the city districts had been provided for, \ Mitdhelltown, Brooklyn, and other suburbs would require to be served. Their engineer had satisfied himself that there jwas absolutely no way to Brooklyn by ; electric tram, but that a cable system ! would eventually have to join the city I service at the top of tipper Willis street. A service to Kilbirnie would depend on the cutting of a tunnel under Mount Victoria. The committee bad decided that the Council should establish

its own electric plant, and as the Engineer counselled having it near the water m that that commodity could be obtained without much trouble, they had de. cided to’rocommend that a site near the destructor would be the best available. Apart from the tramway scheme was the proposal that the Council should wood-block the principal streets at the same time that it laid the tram-lines down, but in order to give the ratepayers a- free hand in regard to that, they had decided to make a proposal to raise £3.3.000 tho subject of a separate vote.

Councillor Luke said he had great pleasure in seconding the motion for the adoption of the report. So far as the Council was concerned, he did not think it had very much more to say m the matter. The Council had already dealt very fully with the matter, and it was now only a question of whether the general principle of an improved system of tramways should be Adopted or not. He thought every Councillor and the public generally considered that the time had arrived when the tramways should be converted from the present horse traction system to the electrical traction system applied by means of the overhead trolley. He was very pleased to see the report brought down. Be wished to give the City Engineer every credit for his very able report. Councillor Luke went on to quote from the “ Tramways Journal” the opinion of Air J. Clifton Robinson, a leading authority, who declared against the conduit system and in favour of the overhead trolley system. The latter system had been adopted in so conservative a city as London. It seemed to him that no other system should be put into effect in Wellington. Dozens, ho might sav scores, of places in the Old Country were converting their tramways from the hor.se traction system to the electric system. Air W. Ferguson was asked to make suggestions to the City Engineer based upon his observations in the Old Country and on the Continent of Europe. • They had conferred, and in the Engineer’s report the matter was very fully dealt with. With reference to extensions, Councillor Luke said he was at one with the AJayor. He thought the present route had the first claim on the ratepayers. The work should be put in hand at once. It could be done in about two years. As to the route in Upper Willis street, ho quite admitted that something might be said abouttaking a branch line up Are street. But he thought that at the present time the City Engineer’s suggestion of carrying a lino into Taranaki street was the better suggestion of the two. He did not think it would be any detriment whatever to have a single lino from the extremity of the city to Island Bay. Going back to the question of the means of traction, he recognised that there would be a good many complaints about the interference of the trolley lines with telephone wires and the Eleotrio Syndicate’s cables, but those difficulties would not bo insurmountable. He was glad to see that a suggestion as to the addition of 10 per cent, had been made. That addition was the responsibility of the Council. A sum of money was wanted in case corners had to be rounded oil’ or in case drainage, water, or gas pipes were encountered. The addition of 10 per cent, would give that sum. He was hopeful that a tramway to Kilbirnie would be brought about very soon. If a tunnel through Alount Victoria was made, ho hoped it would be made io carry a double line of traffic, in view of the probable acquisition of Aliramar by the City Council. He trusted that the report now before the Council would be passed unanimously that night. It should go forth to the public of Wellington that the Council was unanimous in this thing. Councillor Barber contended that any Councillor was as competent to say which was the best route as the City Engineer. Persons born and bred in the city were as well able to decide as to the best route as any expert. For himself, he took exception to the route proposed by the engineer. He moved as an amendment, “That the engineer be instructed to report as to the additional cost of running the tramway up Aro street, and of serving the district in the vicinity of Wallace street by way of Cuba street, Webb street, Hopper street and Hankey street to the Grpsvenor Hotel.” .Cuba street was the Tmarket street for the residents in the district at the foot of Wallace street. The population in Aro street and neighbourhood was in excess of that of Newtown before the. tramway ran to tho latter part of the city. The Aro street people wanted a tramway. The route up Willis street and along Webb street, suggested in the City Engineer’s report, would be a route which would not be availed of by the public to the same extent as those which he (Councillor Barber) advocated.

Councillor Anderson, seconded the amendment. Councillor Winder: Will it be necessary to widen Willis street before a double line of rails can be laid down P The Mayer: No. Councillor Winder: Have you eon. sidered Victoria, street? ■ The Mayor; We have. Councillor Winder : Will you have two separate loans—one for the present route and another for the extensions? The Mayor: There will be one loan. Councillor Izard said that distension as to routes had delayed the construction of the North Island Main Trunk Railway. In extending the tramway system in Wellington they could not take a line to every man’s fowlhouse! Every land agent and every property owner would want to have the tramway taken a certain way. The Council would bn worried by speculators and others to take the tramway in certain directions. In the circumstances, be thought the proper thing at the present time was for the Council to say that it would form the lines as suggested by the City Engineer. In laying out routes they had endeavoured to go as near as possible ‘to the centres of population. Any, extension to bring the tramway near any little district was a for future consideration. When the present Connoil had made the main arterial line, future Councils ootdd put on any link that was wanted. Ho regretted’ that the Mayor had not gone somewhat into the financial aspect of the question. He thought that any one perusing the report and following the arguments used; in it would see that the construction of the main arteries wcnld result in a large return to the Corporation. Further construction could be done out of profits, so that no extra burden would bo' placed on the ratepayers. It was only right that the report should bavei been brought down on the eve of the general election. The ratepayers could now be asked to carry out the scheme. If they started fiddling about various little lengths, they would probably lose the main scheme. He hoped they would definitely resolve that night that the route laid down by the City Engineer should he the arterial route.

The Mayor said the delay in getting the report before the Council was partly due to the fact that they were exceedingly desirous of getting a quick service from tho other end of Newtown, particularly to the Government Buildings. That was forced upon them from a number of directions. It was felt that if they eculd cover that distance in ton minutes, or In a quarter of an hour in the morning and evening and at midday, it would bo an exoeodingly good thing.

The route suggested by' a prominent ratepayer had been gone into very carefully by the City Engineer, who had done his work exceedingly well, and who had had assistance from outside. He (the Alayor) was prepared to accept the statement of the engineer and those who worked with him to the effect that the rente suggested was impracticable, and, considering the grades, would not reduce the time taken between Newtown and the Government Buildings. Councilor Eians asked how it was proposed to meet interest for tho first two or three years? Tho Mayor said the 10 per cent, added for contingencies was partly to cover that. It was hoped that the whole lino including extensions, would be laid in two and a half years. It was certainly hoped to have a double lino on the present route in loss than two years. They would not wait till the whole length was ready before they began to run cars. The amendment was negatived on the voices, and the motion for tho adoption of tho report was agreed to. It was resolved, on the motion of Councillor Luke, seconded by Councillor Izard, “That the question of placing the matter of security before the ratepayers be loft in the hands of the Finance Committee, with power to act.” Councillo; Izard: And with instructions to act immediately. The Alaycr: Yes. We have to start at once, because we want to get it before the ratepayers before the election.,