SHORTER ROUTE TO KARORI

New Zealand Times, Volume LII, Issue 12094, 23 March 1925, Page 8

SHORTER ROUTE TO KARORI

GOVERNMENT’S DECREE CRITICISED.

“We most certainly do not agree* with the Government’s decree, or what threatens to become a definite decree, that trams shall not run past the Parliamentary Buildings ’’ remarked a Karori resident to a “Times” reporter, “and if we can bring forward no argument which the Government (will listen to, at least we can quote . precedent. . “The British Government manages to get along quite nicely in the Houses of Parliament, in spite of the faob that over Westminster Bridge, immediately at hand, thunders traffic of thousandfold tho volume of Bowen street’s likely traffic, trams, as well as motor and horse-drawn traffic. St. George’s Hospital, at ; the corner of Knight’s Bridge, opposite Hyde Park, may be cited as just one hospital past which thunders another enormous strean of traffic, 50.000 or 60,000 vehicles per day, practically the whole of the traffic from Piccadilly, though here there are no trams. Bowen street’s traffic would scarcely add a whisper to the roar i f Westminster Bridge or of the traffic from Piccadilly.” THE BOWEN STREET ROUTE SOME ARGUMENTS AGAINST. (To the Editor, “N.Z. Times.”) Sir, —Karorfcomimiters have returned to the attack regarding a shorter route, and “demand” that it be via Bowen street. The maximum of intelligence cannot be expected from a town council, just prior to an election, which the Karorians appreciate, as members are then looking two ways for votes. • Modern ideas condemn the permanent track for city transit. If the authorities want a local exposition of a ’bus service, let them patronise the Hutt-Wellington line and see the, patronage it gets against the railway running alongside. That is one phase. Another is that a splendid hospital has been built in Bowen street (with which I have no connection), and it would be a crime to those who have yet to be treated there to put a noisy tram at the door. If any of those who are clamouring for this line had ever stood by a hospital bed of one near and dear, and watched the extra agony caused by street noises, they would not “demand” this atrocity. Politically I am a Reformer, and I look, to Sir Francis Bell,' in Mr Massey’s absence, to refuse this unfeeling request of a selfish few, who want, at great expense to the ratepayers, to shorten the ride from Karori by about two minutes. There are other votes than those of the Karorians, if that is what Messrs Wright and Co. are thinking about.— Yours, etc.. D.E.A.