TRAMWAY FIGURES AND OTHER MATTERS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18325, 16 August 1921, Page 6

TRAMWAY FIGURES AND OTHER MATTERS.

TO TH* KDITOB. Sib, — The more 1 looked, in the Meadowbanks Company’s works in New South Wales, at the first car to be forwarded to Dunedin—for it was finished ready for inspection, to be cased and sent to Sydney some 15 miles or so, and shipped—the more waa I confirmed in my opinion that we had made a grave amateur error in not starting years ago in building for ourselves. Since 1 have come back, a councillor who has twice let us in badly, said we should have asked a Christchurch firm to open up in Duqedin. But why a Christchurch firm? Have we no capable Dunedin men? What the nine or ten oars will cost us more than if we had, built during the last ten years, with the result that we should have had less crowding, and the use of them in these yours, it is nqt for me to .say. Ask the chairman of the Tramways Committee, for he has had the northern balance sheets and his speeches as a guide. The committee cannot hide behind the manager’s reports, which they must have swallowed with childlike simplicity—supposing they actually saw them! But this I doubt. With your permission I am giving a few figures for your readers to digest. WKTXIXr.TOX, fCapital £866,221.) Working < Passengers. Revenue. Expenses. £ £ 1620 37,246,634 277,087 200,430 1010 33,065,602 223,802 166,684 Increase ... 3,380,042 55,195 32,746 CHRISTCHURCH. (Capital, £779,900). Working Passengers. Revenue. Expenses. £ £ 1020 25,073,655 205,000 136,560 1919 21,623,692 166,447 102,106 Increase ... 4,349,963 39,553 34,454 DUNEDIN'. (Capital, £305,000.) i Working Passengers. Revenue. Expenses. £ £ 1921 ... 18,744,010 115,865 77,990 1920 17,707,302 106,954 66,430 1919 15,593,848 82,851 50,331 If the ratepayers could only see the beehives of the northern cities they would realise how Dunedin is a bad third. When I came here in 1879 Melbourne used to have a boat a week calling at the Bluff. Instead of a boat a week, it is three weeks or more, and if Auckland figures -were available we should be a bad fourth. But I am opening up a big question. How many Sydneysiders are engaged at the tramsheds? How many scores of thousands of pounds are the care costing us more than the cars they are displacing? Count in cost of cars, cost of lines, extra revenue, etc. It is no answer that the other centres have spent thousands in purchasing their experience, and wo are profiting by the experience. Count up the workmen and their trade in the community. In profiting by experience, Meadovvbanke is a result. All industries start somewhere. I have .said that_ the figures are interest, ing ns a lesson in civics. Why are not Year Bocks and newspaper figures used in our schools? A live teacher can use them almost indefinitely, hut what is the use when they do not count? Fortunately, they are coming in ns the broader scheme gets atmosphere more and more. In the Christchurch report we are told that n new car costs £3700 to construct. whereas liefore the war its cost was £1370. How much will the new cars cost more than in 1914? How much in comparison the now tramsheds? How much will the Christchurch and the Wellington output cost more than ours, by there being a more up-to-date output during the past seven years? £IOO.OOO will probably he nn under-estimate, apart from »he tradesmen's business. The present cars will cost about £50.000, including the cost of the new erections, and perhaps more. Some count bv money, others take in other work making for prosperity.—l am. etc.. James Jeffeht. Anderson’s Bay, August 13.