CANNOT PROMISE FARES FOR FUTURE

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19237, 26 November 1930, Page 6

CANNOT PROMISE FARES FOR FUTURE

MR HAYWARD REPLIES TO LABOUR SPEAKER. The following statement was issued yesterday by Mr W. Hayward, chairman of the Christchurch Tramway Board:— “A great deal of capital is being made by both Mr and Mrs M’Combs of the reply I gave to a question which was asked at a public meeting in the Chamber of Commerce on Friday night last. “The question was: ‘Would I give a guarantee that tram fares would not be increased for the next three years?’ My reply was that I could give no such guarantee, but I could say that every avenue of economy would be pursued before fares were put up. lam convinced that the question was asked in good faith and in no antagonistic spirit, but had the questioner thought for a few moments he must have seen that his question was an impossible one. “It would be just as wise to ask an individual member of the Dairymen’s Association if he could give a guarantee that the price of milk would not be advanced in Christchurch for the next three years. He obviously could give no such guarantee. I claim that my reply was the only possible one, and had I been a vote-catching politician I could easily have given a qualified approval—but as I am only* one member of a board of nine, even such an approval would have been valueless, and I take it that when my opponents can find no other point to criticise me on, particularly a weak one, they are paying me quite a high compliment.”