TRAMWAYS MUST PAY

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVI, Issue 8189, 2 August 1912, Page 6

TRAMWAYS MUST PAY

“I consider we must directly face the situation. . . in order to place the finances on a proper working basis.”—The Mayor. '

- Tlie main obstacle to the Council fao- . ing the situation seems to be the extra- . ordinary desire of certain Councillors to approach consideration of the matter from a point of view restricted to contemplation of certain districts. Instead of the tramway system being ro-j 1 garded as a civic undertaking it appears to be looked upon by these gen-| tleraen as an undertaking run for the' special benefit of particular parts of the city. Councillor Barber and Coun-i i cillor Cameron, for instance, are per-j , suaded that they have a special mission, ~to perform in securing residents of, ■ ; Newtown a right to ride in perpetuity ■ on the cheap. This is all very well up ’ to a certain point, but carried beyond that amounts to a mischievous derelic,- j tion of duty. When Councillor Cameron talks at random about it being the duty of the Council to provide for the people getting “for one penny as far away as possible from their work” the question he has to answer is whether the penny • should meet the cost of giving the > rid©, and if it should not to say from ' whom the balance is to be collected., , We could understand, even if we failed ■ to see the virtue of, a scheme of tramway administration which deliberately lost money giving penny rides and made up the hole in the working account by| levying a charge upon the rates. But; it is obviously impossible to follow mem-1 bers of a public body who, while pro- > tending to conduct a municipal service' on a paying basis, nearly run the oon-j cern into the ditch and then protest against its rescue from such parlous plight. Any proposal to give one seo- ' tion of the community an advantage at the expense of another section of ■ 1 the community cannot bo sustained, either logically or morally. The indiI vidual who rides the three and a third miles from Lambton quay to the New town terminus for 3d is not being robbed. If ho covers the distance for 2d, and the community loses a halfpenny which has to be made up from sections on which the public is not getting a fair ride for its money, the system is obviously wrong. We are glad the_ Council has at length come to a decision on 1 this debatable subject. Now that it is 1 has contrived to do so owe ■; it to tho community to giro tho inno- ■ j vation a fair trial over a series of . t months in order to definitely ascertain j what tho result will bo. By that time only tho most inveterate agitators will i have survived to bring to the public 1 grindstone tho particular axes which ; J they have to sharpen.