THE TRAMWAYS.

Taranaki Daily News, 2 June 1916, Page 8

THE TRAMWAYS.

A RED LETTER DAY. : THE OPENING CEREMONY. The New Plymouth electric overhead tramways were officially opened at Fitzroy yesterday afternoon. The day was bitterly cold, but notwithstanding there was n large attendance of the public. An hour before the opening, a special car, gaily decorated, was run over the route. Aboard were representative townsmen and visitors. In the tramway yards at I'itzroy a platform had been erected, and the feats were occupied <by the Mayor (Mr. C. H. Burgess), ex-Mavors Messrs .T. E. Wilon, 0. W. Browne. 10. Dockrill, .T. B. Hoy, 11. Coekf present, and past councillors, the Mayors of Stratford (Mr. <f W. Boon), and Waitara (Mr. E. Beckbessinger), Mr. J. B. Connett (chairman of tlie Harbor Board), Mr. .1. Brown (chairman ot the Taianaki County Council), and .several prominent townsmen. His Worship'the Mayor read apologies for non-attendance from the Minister for Public Works, the Taranaki members of ■Parliament and many others. . THE MAYOR'S SPEECH. His Worship proceeded:—Having occasion to 'ook for some papers in tlie council room a few days ago, I found in a book on the Mayor's desk this sheet of paper. It is only a scrap of paper, Imt is of interest at the present time as it is a leaflet taken from the Taranaki Daily News of April 6, 1910, being a report of the Tramways Committee of the previous evening, convened by the then Mayor, Mr G. Tisch whom'we regret did not live long enough to see the work completed. There were present also at that meeting Councillors Bellringer Browne and I>ekril, and it was suggested by this committee that a Tramway Board be set up and a Citizens' Committee, appointed and that the full committee meet on April 20. From that date ■we may say tlie scheme was finally launched. There was considerable delay in getting the work under way, but this was from two causes. First, the committee decided that the tramway installation should be a municipal one, and there can be no doubt this was wise and necessary. Second, th<; committee also decided that no work should'be proceeded with until the Greater New Plymouth scheme had been formulated and inaugurated which eventually was carried out. This was also wise and necessary, but whether we were wise in extending our limits as far as sve have done is open to question. Anyway that is a matter that does not concern the tramways and after six years' delay we are opening them to-day. They have been running for some few weeks, but it is only within the last week or so that we can say the work has been in any way completed. We had hoped to have them running before Christmas, but owing to the war we were most unfortunate in not getting delivery of some very important parts. When the work was finally decided upon, Mr. Fred. Black, of Wellington, was appointed Consulting Engineer and has been responsible for all the work done in that connection With him was associated Mr. R. Bartley (our present manager) as resident engineer, and the Council can rest assured that these two gentlemen have watched their interests very closely. In our contractors we have also been fortunate, Messrs. Greenshields and Cc. had the contract for the permanent way, overhead installation, the cars, and sug-station equipment. Messrs fihaw and Payne had the contract for the smb-station, car sheds and offices, and both these firms, I think, have endeavored to give the Council full value for the work done. I might add that though Messrs Greenshields and Co. had the contract for the cars they were designed by Mr. F. Black and built 'by Messrs. Boon Bros., 9f Christchurch, and have given great satisfaction, ' " 1 THE COST. Tlie hext point to consider is the cost. Originally £45,000 was considered sufficient for the work, but eventually a loan was raised for £55.000, and to this was added a further £5500, making a total of £60,500. 7n addition to this the electric light incurred a liability of some .£4OOO to provide machinery to supply power to the tramways, but for this, of course, we anticipate an immediate and adequate return. Another source of expense has been the renewal of the road on what is now known as the tramway route. The cost of this, which is a tar sealed road, has been heavier a great deal than the Council anticipated, Ibut I think in time we shall realise that the work was justified. It is a clean street the whole length of the route and must add to the comfort of those living about the route and also to the 'travelling in the trams as dust nuisance should be practicalyl eliminated. Other expenses were incurred through /the unfortunate circumstance, that owing to the outbreak of the war we were unable to start the work until late autumn, instead of early summer and the consequence was that our roads were considerably cut up, extra amount for maintenance. However the direct charge for interest and sinking fund against the tramway system is on the £(50,000 only. This liability, with working expenses, will necessitate receipts of something like £2OO per week, or, taking the population roughly at eight thousand, it means 25s per year for every man, woman and child in tlie Borough. THE RETURNS. l'his !s a heavy charge, and wc are, of course, not optimistic enough to think we shall achieve this for two or three years. The experience of other towns, however, has been that the loss has not been as heavy as anticipated, and we trust and hope that the same may be said of our own line. Thoutrh there may be a direct loss for some little time, ive

think the indirect benefit to ho set against that loss will to a large extent' minimise the same. . We know that from lime to time people have come here with the intention of settling, but have been prevented from doing so for the want of conveniences to be found in modern towns, and if we want increased population, and increased population means increased prosperity, we must have modern conveniences. That we arc providing these, the tramways, is on! v one of the many things the Council has had in.hand. THE TOWN'S FACILITIES AND CONVENIENCES. Going back fourteen years all we had in the line of modern conveniences practically consisted of an old and out-of-date water system, a library of one room, which was situated in our very antiquated Town Hall. Now the position is this", we have ail up-to-date water system, gravitation, second to none in the Dominion. We have a drainage system which cost us £IB.OOO and this must sooner or later and the sooner the better, be extended. .We have also an electric light system, which has cost us something like £OO,OOO, and has not only paid its way from its inception, but lias added considerable extensions out of profits. some £7OOO or more. We have public saltwater baths, first class library and rea.'ing room, sea side pavilions, and to-day we have added tramways. We propose shortly when the war is over to erect a refuse destructor, and have also ill view the building of a museum, w,' is primarily to house the collection .icrously donated by the Messrs. Skim rto the Borough. You can see. then n.at the Borough Council during the las-, few years has not been idle. PROGRESS OF THE TOWN. A considerable amount of progress has been made apart from Council undertakings—we. have a very efficient Technical College, and our High School lias in the last few years advanced wonderfully and the trouble with the governors of the school is to keep pace with this advance. Wc have now also a very comfortable and up-to-date house on Mt. F.gmont which has since its erection attracted a considerable number of visitors to New Plymouth. Our seaside committees have worked hard also, so that our beaches are now immensely popular, both- with our own people and those towns along the line. Our harbor is practically completed, and we shall shortly be able to accommodate, as far as the draught of water is concerned, the largest vessels trading to New Zealand. New meat works are being erected and the ironsand prospects at the time look very hopeful. All this may not appear to have any connection with tram's, but. I have dweit on them to justify the faith of those who first decided that tramways should be provided for New 'Plymouth. I think we may well congratulate the promoters on the success so far achieved. Before concluding, a few words on behalf of the staff. A tramway system, like any other business, depends largely upon its staff for its success. In Mr. Bartley, I, consider, we have a very capable and efficient officer, and under .his guidance, I am sure we shall get the best working results obtainable. A great, deal also depends upon the men who are working the cars, etc., and I am pleased to say that the manager has so far expressed his entire satisfaction with all the men under his control. (Applause). THE LATE MAYOR. Mr. J, E. Wilson, ox-Mayor, congratulated the people of New Plymouth on meeting that day to formally open the trams. Personally he had always had groat faith in the future of the town. The late Mr. G. Tisch, when Mayor, realising that the time was ripe for placing New Plymouth in line with the progressive towns of tlie Dominion, took tse initial steps in connection with the trams. lie was followed by Mr. Browne, who, by completing the Greater New Plymouth scheme, rendered a commencement possible. The burgesses were fortunate in securing Mr. Fred Black as consulting engineer and engineer in charge of the > laying down of the system. He detailed at some length the difficulties caused through the outbreak of war just after the contract was signed and had there been a /day or two more delay, it was not likely the trams would have been opened yet, and the cost been infinitely greater. In this respect he made appreciative reference to Messrs. Greenshields and C'o. (the contractors), who had arranged to complete their contract- at an additional price that in the light of future events appeared ridiculously low. The work had been faithfully carried out. New Plymouth now had a very fine installation. It had been said that tlie service would not be expected to pay for two or three years. The council had done, their duty in providing an up-to-date service, and it now remained with the fatepavers to do their utmost t,o foster the trams. If they did not, they would have to foot the bill for interest and other charges. THE TOWN'S PPOSPERITY. j He considered that the town was on the eve of great development. There was every prospect of the harbor being opened to large cean-goinp vessels. In a few months the freezing works would be open. There should be considerable expansion of population within the next two or three years. All agreed that we had every right to expect pennlo to come from other places and r . " hrro, and while lie ndmitcd that io> were few places in New Zealand i-o;. suitable. yet to attract people we 1; ■!» 'to show them attractions and pro\, . farilitics. It was not good enough to write to the papers and say what a fine place New Plymouth was, Imt they must act as if tliey believed the place was going to go ahead. The trams would have a widespread influence in this respect, as it would show people that we had sufficient confidence in the town to undertake the expenditure and were prepared to pay a considerable amount for the upikeep of one of tlie modern conveniences. People should be prepared to do more for the i town than they bad done in the past. A great deal could be done in improving the buildings that line the main street. One of the principiil institutions of Australasia (the A.M.P. Society) recognised '■ New Plymouth as worthy of the erection of a substantia] building. There ivere a great many other places that should be pulled down, and be replaced by buildings worthy of the place. (Applause). A HAPPY MAN. Mr. G. W. Browne, who had liccn connected with the tramway scheme from the initiation of the movement till the present, said he was one of the happiest men present. He traversed the negotiations in connection with the Grtater New (Plymouth scheme, stating it was only possible to install the trams after the establishment of a Greater New Plymouth, as the old borough of 7SO acres had neither population nor valuation sufficient to give bond holders. I'itzroy was the first place to join in the Greater