As Shanghai is considering the subject of tramways, it may be of interest to know how the matter is being dealt with up north. In August last Messrs. E. Meyer and Ca., acting as the General Managers of the Electric Traction and Lighting Ca.. dressed an application to the Chairman of the British Municipal Council for permis sion to run a tramway down the Bund, and also through certain roads of the British Concession, and stating that they had obernment a franchise for years, for the exclusive privilege of running electric cary within the city and its suburbs as far as the T. P. G. jurisdiction extended. The Company stated aystem adopted would be overlies proposed to pay the B. M. C. one percent of the gross earnings (1 per cent) and_one-tenth of the net profit after paying 7 per cent accumulative dividend to sbarcholders, the one per cent and ten per cent to be calculated on the proportion of mileage within the British Concessions.
This magnificent proposal led to the B.M.C. and British Extension Couneil_appointing a joint Committee to consider the details of the scheme and report. on it accordingly, and meetings were held on the 80th ult. to receive and consider the report. The Committee, which was composed of some of our most capable' public men, appear to have decided against the scheme almost immediately, and the report contains but little technical information, and offers no suggestions as to how the difficul-tics which to them appear insurmountable might possibly be overcome, and in the patter of enlightening the general public did comparatively little. The report gave verdict against the scheme, first" because {the Bund is too narrow and over congested already, secondly, beau: it would reduce the market value of residences in the tra Concession past which the line aight The meetings, while not xt all inclined to swallow the tramway scheme whole, shewel a distinct tion to accept aways in principle, not for the tram-'s sake, but (1) as possible means of ising the revenue of the Extra Conces-asa means of maintaining the pre-eminence always taken in commercial mat ters by the British Concession; (3) as means of relief 1g the congested traffic already existing will be still farther imereased when the Tientsin railway is completed imeuis of encourag to reside on the available outskirts of the settlements and prevent: an otherwise in-lo preference for settlements nearer the native city. This was brief ly the contention of those in fa-your of the scheme in principle, who nevertheless agreed that they requtired to know rather more of the scheme than had been made public. A good impression was created when, at the somewhat animated discussion of the Extra Concession owners, the names of the womoters were read out, as an idea ad generally prevailed that the scheme cluded promoters whose interests would not be identical with the port and its long-cherished institutions. The promoters include most of our prominent men, and confidence in the scheme has been' inspired, but nothing definite has been voted at: pre= sent. Another Committee has been asked to further investigate the practical bearing, of the scheme. Tt is generally believed, however, that the idea will he carried, and that the time is close at hand when electric trams will run down the Bund and through the Extra Concession to the city.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.