THE CITY TRAMWAYS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13518, 15 February 1906, Page 6

THE CITY TRAMWAYS.

The decision of the City Council last evening, on the recommendation of the Tramways Committee, to invite Messrs Noyes finis, to continue the management of the electric tramways for a further period of .six months will be approved |>y the bulk of the community. We do not doubt that there are .1 few wise people amongst our residents who believe that it would be possible to improve upon the system of management of which we have bad experience. But we are perfectly convinced that the majority of the public of Duuedin realise that the conduct of the-service, which has been organised and managed by Messrs Noyes Bros, from the institution of the electric' system, 'has been highly efficient and exceedingly satisfactory. The service has been carried 011 until only a few weeks ago under many disadvantages, as was pointed out ill the report that was presented to the Council by Messrs Goodman and Richards a fortnight ago; and even now, in the absence of s> double track at the Kensington Hotel corner, the system can hardly be described as complete, It is only upon this year's returns, therefore, that we shall be able to form any reliable judgment respecting the financial prospects of the municipal tramway enterprise. But public opinion must he virtually unanimous in its recognition of the ability with which the service lias been managed from its inception. We shall be told that the cars are frequently'overcrowded, winch is to say that Dunedin is not free from an experience that is common to largelypopulated centres, and that has led to the coinage in London of the word "strap-bangers" as applicable to passengers who are unable to find seats in tba conveyances they patronise; but, after all, the City Council is itself, rather than its spirants, to blame for the violation of its by-laws in this particular. The management must, on the other Jiand, be accorded every credit fo.r the smoothness of the running <jf the service and for the rather exceptional record of the municipal tramways in respect of the avoidance of serious accident. Tim arrangement under which the management of the service has been entrusted to Messrs Noyes- tiros, by the City Council must be acknowledged, moreover, to be an exceedingly economical one for the ratepayers. In default of any such arrangement, we take it that it wopld be imperative that the Council should secure at once the services of a tramway manager, an electrical engineer, and probably also of two or three other officers. At present, for the sum of £500 per annum, the Corporation enjoys the benefit- of the. service? of the entiro local staff of Messrs Noyes Bros. Tnis arrangement must, from the point of view of the city, be accounted to ha singularly favourable.