MR R. E. GREEN WRITES ON TRAMS IN SQUARE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18787, 17 June 1929, Page 8

MR R. E. GREEN WRITES ON TRAMS IN SQUARE.

To the Editor. Dear Sir,—l cannot understand Mr F. W. Johnston when he says he “ thinks that the tramways must discharge their passengers at some central point in the city.” It would create congestion, and would not serve the convenience of the public. Making the Square a central stopping place is what is prim, responsible for much of the congestion that now prevails in the Square and at the Bank, through pedestrians scrambling through all manner of traffic in a most dangerous effort to reachr or leave this absurd stopping place.

There should be no central stopping place anywhere in the city, nor, under proper management, should there be any terminus in the city. Trams should pass through from one district to another, and not waste time and impede all other traffic by standing in the Square and making it a shunting yard. Not one person who comes into the city by tram does his business in the centre of the Square, unless it be those who come there for no other reason than to gossip. I have watched this central zone for houTS, gone away, and come back, and found the same people sitting there, some reading books and l others with their eyes fixed on the arrival and departure of each tram. This

is not wild talk; it is from one who has been and seen.

When I have been discussing this central stop with other people tome have said: “ But see what a lot of people gather there." That is quite true. Through the day and night thousands of people gather there, but not by their own choice. The trams deposit them there, and the same danger faces all who have to leave the socalled “ safety zone.” The proper term is “ danger zone.” I venture to say (if that monstrosity is permitted to exist) in the very near future somebody will lose someone who is most dear to them. Why persist in such a mad course when a much lees dangerous, and a much more convenient, service could be inaugurated? I have lived for seventy years in Christchurch, and have watched the trend of events, and have watched the tram grow from the beginning, and I am quite satisfied that the time has long since arrived for the tram management to emerge from the old ruts to keep pace with the ever-changing methods of transporting the ever-in-creasing number of people who axe now bent on moving more quickly. They have no time to waste in waiting an opportunity to dodge the motor traffic and the bike. The people must be picked up and set down close to a footpath, and this can be done without additional cost, on the same lines of tramways as now exist. All trams should stop to pick up and set down passengers before they enter the Square, and then pass right through the Square without stopping. Take, for instance, all trams going north and south. For these there should be two new stops at Gloucester Street, one on each side in Colombo Street. Thus the people would be served close to a footpath which would lead them in safety to where they wanted to do their business, and it ■would also suit the theatre and picture patrons, who could keep to the footpath, instead of scrambling through the buses and motor-cars that are moving in all directions when the people are leaving the shows. Then, again, there should be four new stops created just south of Hereford Street, two in Colombo Street and two in High Street. Here, again, the people would be served close to a footpath which would lead in safety to all parts near by; and on the east side of High Street and the west of Colombo Street they would have the benefit of the shop verandahs for shelter, the same as obtains at other stopping places. Then on two sides of that Flower Plot opposite the City Hotel, a light and ornamental verandah could be erected over the footpath for shelter. This need not interfere with the ' plot. This, I think, would make an ideal shopping place for women and children, as there are no side channels there, and it would give free access all round the Triangle. Thus it would be seen for the north and south-bound trams there would be six new stopping places created, and the great crowd of people who are now forced to use the central stop (which is nowhere) would be divided into six small lots, and they would be distributed nearer to where their business calls them.

These two items alone should have some weight with those who are trusted with the management of the traffic. This illustration of north and south trams could be made to apply to all trams going east and west, but I am inclined to think that east and west trams should not go through the Square. A better way would be along

Hereford and Gloucester Streets, but for the present I would not advocate moving any of the present lines. They, together with the overhead gear, could remain where they are, with a distinct understanding that when they require to be removed they shall be placed in their proper place, where they would serve the public better without the risk of losing either life or limb. But all the abominations that are now on the peoples’ reserve, including that hideous thing called a shelter, have got to go, and the reserve restored to the citizens of Christchurch for the purpose for which it was reserved, and if the City Council wish to be regarded as honourable gentlemen they will at once put their house in order, and fulfil the pledges given by a former Council. They will wipe out that danger zone, and restore the roadway to a 50ft carriageway with an 18ft footpath in front of the Cathedral. Now I appeal to Archbishop Julius to demand that the rights of the Cathedral Chapter shall be restored, and I respectfully ask him to hunt up the minutes of meetings of the Dioceson Synod of about 1870, and he will find it recorded that the Cathedral Chapter in order to meet the wishes of the citizens, gave free of charge a strip of land off the Cathedral grounds about half a chain wide on the north, south and west of their ground in order to widen the roadways and straighten Colombo Street, which were then only one chain wide, and he will find it recorded that these free gifts were made conditionally that Colombo Street should have a carriageway 50ft wide with an 18ft footpath on the whole of the west front of the Cathedral. The western curve of Colombo Street was not altered. The road was only one chain wide. The extra width we have to-day is what the Cathedral Chapter gave. These facts the City Council must have, for I not only remember them, but I have seen them recorded in the “Lyttelton Times about the year 1870. In the face of these facts, I ask the Mayor of Christchurch how he can give countenance to w’hat is now in front of the Cathedral, or what is now proposed to be put there? I ask him again, would he dare to sanction such disfigurements to be erected in front of his new church ? I think I can supply the answer. He knows he dare not, for his congregation would tire him out, so it would be interesting to know if he is going to offer an insult to another Church that has done so much to improve the roadway a»l