TRAMWAY DISTRICTS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16319, 7 January 1921, Page 7

TRAMWAY DISTRICTS.

FIXING THE BOUNDARIES

PROPOSED ALTERATIONS. Th©"*Commission set- up to divide the tramway area into sub-districts, tp determine boundaries, and to determine the number of members of tho board to represent each sub-district, th© total number not to exceed nine, continued its sitting in the Tramway Board’s room to-day Mr V\ .S. Short presided, with him Mr A. Freeman. Mr E. Kibblewhite, Mayor of New Brighton, said that as far as New Brighton was concerned, no alteration of boundaries was wanted. Suburban areas should not lose any of their representation. The population of the borough was growing vapidly and would continue to do so, particularly when the tramway system was extended to South Brighton. In reply t 0 the Hon John Barr. Mr Kibblewhite raid that what New Brighton wanted was direct representation on ‘ho board. New Brighton did not

want- to be combined with IVoolston or Sumner. There was a healthy rivalry between the two seaside resorts and itwas not desirable that both should have the same representative on the lxiard.

Mr . J. Dougall. tho board’s solicitor, Jinvc his opinion on the wording of the Christchurch Tra.vmny District Act. i Section 3 of tho Act was, lie considered, iin the whole mandatory. ft left the Commission discretion. how- ! ever, in so far as other fact-tors might

be considered. These other factors must be subsidiary to the factors of population, rateable value of property and local boundaries. In his opinion if these three factors combined as regards any particular district the Commission would not ho at liberlv to ignore them. The Commission hnd' a judicial function and had to take into account the requirements of the whole district, and had to subdivide it into sub-districts. In order to do chat the Commission would be a t liberty to sub-divide what was known as the central area. It could make nine sub-districts; on the other hand it could .join *;ul>-distr. Is if if thought advisable. In his opin-

ion the dominant lactors the Commission had to consider were population, rateable value of property and local boundaries.

Jr. reply to the Commissioner, Mr Dougall said lie considered that the Commission could divide the city area if H thought desirable. If the factors of population, rateable value of property and local boundaries combined it was mandatory of the Commission to give effect to them, even if it meant that on population and value the city area might absorb seven of the nine members of the board.

To Mr Barr: The Commission must give effect to these three factors, hut ii: had a much wider discretion than that given under the Legislature Act. It. was not bound down by figures. It had no authority to apply the “ country quota. ” principle to the suburbs. The Commissioner said that although the final figures were not available, there wa-s sufficient data to show that the central area was entitled to a certain definite representation. He asked Air Dougali if under these circumstances he considered that tho board could ignore this fact.

Mr Dougall said that that was a matter for the Commission. He could 1 only give his opinion that the three factors named in the Act wore mandatory.

Mr D. Sykes, a member of the board, said that if the central area were given most of the representation on the board it would be defeating the purpose for which tho Tramway Board was created, namely, to give representation to the outside districts in tho management of the tramways. In reply to Mr H. Pearce, member of th© board for Linwpod, Mr Dougall eaid that the old Tramway Act was dead. it could only be consulted if some doubt aiose regarding the wording of th© new Act to see if any mistake had been made. Mr H. Pearce, member of the board for Lin wood, objected to the inclusion of the Linwood sub-district in tho central area. He said that in the central area, while the values were high, th© tramway users were proportionately small. He asked the Commission to give consideration to this fact. Mr Frank Thompson, general manager of the tramways, said that the figures which had been supplied to the Commission regarding population were only approximate, as the actual figures were not obtainable. Some oF the figures quoted were based on tho census of four years ago, and since then many of the districts had increased considerably as regards population. The Hon John Barr ;-aid that during the past four years lire population in all the outlying districts had materially increased There was more room for population to grow in the suburbs than in the central area. That should be taken into consideration when the question of population was being considered No further evidence was forthcoming and the Commission Accordingly adjourned till 10 a.m. to-morrow, to enable any other representatives of local bodies to give evidence.