TRAM ELECTION.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXIV, Issue 934, 2 December 1933, Page 11

TRAM ELECTION.

Statement by Mr Andrews Resented. “ASSUMES TOO MUCH." “Mr Andrews assumes too much if he assumes that the electors who voted for the Independent candidates would have given their support to the nominees of the Citizens’ Association if there had been no Independents in the field,” said Mr B. J. Ager, one of the Independent candidates for the Tramway Board election, in reply to a statement by Mr E. H. Andrews. “ The defeat of the Citizens’ Association candidates was due to the antagonism of the general public to the policy of the old board,” said Mr Ager. “ I strongly resent Mr Andrews’s suggestion that their defeat was due solely to the Independent candidates. If there had not been any Independents the votes of the Labour candidates would have l>een increased and not those of the Citizens’ Association’s representatives.”

Mr Ager said that 55 per cent of the total votes were recorded against the policy of the old board, and the support which the Independents received was due to the fact that they had attacked that policy. With regard to the new board Mr Ager said he believed that it would honestly endeavour to popularise the trams and put the system on a paying basis again. It was a big task in view of the way the trams had been run at a loss in the past, and if the new members could stem that loss it would redound greatly to their credit. Mr Ager said that transport systems were changing so rapidly that he would like to see the new board adopt the policy of examining carefully the latest developments in other countries. He believed that the time was not far distant when tram tracks would be eliminated entirely and a more mobile and inexpensive type of vehicle used. STIRRED THE JAM. Sidelights on the Tramway Election. There were many amusing sidelights to the tramway election on Thursday, and supporters of the various candidates in some cases found it was more difficult to get people to the various booths than they had anticipated. Many housewives were too tied up with household and social engagements to spare the time to travel to the nearest booth. Persuasion failed in some cases, but one young man induced a woman in Addington to leave her jam-making and children to his tender mercies while she embarked in a car to exercise her franchise. He stirred the jam with a practised hand and rocked the baby in between times for half an hour. Another young man sat patiently on a verandah to receive the expected guests of a woman who had been taken to vote. No stone was left unturned to make the polling the heaviest on record, and some of the candidates’ supporters enlisted all manner of means to win votes for their favourites. TRAMWAY SERVICE. Co-operation With the New Board. The secretary of the Tramway Employees’ Union (Mr T. W. Smith) stated this morning that a meeting of the executive of the union had been called for this evening to consider suggestions as to how best members of the union might co-operate with the new Tramway Board. Suggestions would no doubt be made concerning directions in which the present service might be improved.