SUBSIDY TO USERS.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20362, 20 July 1934, Page 14

SUBSIDY TO USERS.

Criticism of Tramway Rate. OPERATIONS OF BOARD. Criticism of the tramway rate on the ground that it was in effect a subsidy to the customers of the trams at the expense of the general public and that it reduced the purchasing power of the people who had to pay it, was made by Air H. D. Acland, president of the Christchurch Citizens’ Association, in his address at the annual meeting of the association last evening. Business management of municipal undertakings as he understood it, said Air Acland, meant that such public utilities as tramways would be carried on and maintained by the users and customers of such undertakings and not become a charge upon the work and energy of all citizens. Changes Needed. “Board members now in control of the tramway system stated prior to the last election that unless there was a drastic change and overhaul and examination into the overhead charges, a quickening of the service, or a reduction in the charges, the tramway service would be on the rates within two years. The present board has been in office for less than eight months and has levied a rate of approximately £35,000. 'Alembers of the party at present in control are, in effect, endeavouring to manage the tramways in the way they previously adversely criticised.

“For instance they criticised very 1 severely just prior to the elections last November what are known as one-man trams. As a result no doubt they received a great deal of support from voters. Air Archer, the present chairman of the Tramway Board, is reported in the newspapers to have said that he detested one-man trams. He believed they were a step backward, not a step forward. They should be either improved or abolished. They were a hindrance to the tramways and to ordinary traffic. He was also against them because of the strain they placed upon the man who manipulated them. In his opinion, from the point of view of passengers, these one-man trams were death traps. To-day the Tramway Board, of which Air Archer is chairman, is increasing the number of one-man trams.”