CO129-315 - Public Offices & Others - 1902 — Page 276

With regard to your proposal of substituting the words

"30 years" and "10 years" for "50 years" and "5 years" in section 31, we desire to point out, that the 50 years was agreed to after full discussion with the Governor and debate in the Legislative

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Council.

You will be aware that the short life of the

concessions granted under the Tramways Act of 1870 has acted as a strong deterrent to the development of tramways in this country.

The fare chargeable under the various Provisional

Orders promoted under this Act is ld. per passenger per mile,

with the additional provision that a very small number of work-

men's cars shall be run at d. per mile with a minimum fare of

ld.

When the question of the life of the concession was

in the first instance discussed with Sir Henry Blake 1d. per

mile was taken as the basis of the fares for third class

passengers. It was only agreed to meet Sir Henry Blake's demand

for a reduction of the English basis on the distinct and absolute

understanding that the concession would be for a period of 50

years.

:

You may be unaware that the maximum fare chargeable

for third class passengers under the terms of section 48 of the

Ordinance is 5 cents for certain specific stages, which stages

average 2.809 miles each. The fare of 5 cents comes out at

.4272d. per passenger per mile which is .5728d. per passenger

per mile less than charged in this country. On the workmens'

cars the fare is 3 cents for the double journey. As this

aggregates 16 miles 6 fur 8 chains, the fare averages but

.04273d. per passenger per mile as against .54. in England.

have taken 2/- as the standard dollar.

We

Speaking by way of analogy; on the Cape Town Tram-

ways the authorised fare works out at about 3d. per passenger per

mile.

In 1899 our Mr Dickinson went out to the Cape and

before the Cape Legislative Council fully discussed this point,