Whatever may be the deficiencies of the tramways here it seamy desir-fable that criticism should conform to Some reasonable appreciation of the conditions imposed: by the franchise. It" has been pointed out in this journal that the 'Tramway Company operates just now under the dis vantage of not knowing whether 'Couneit will, in five yeary' time, exercise the option to acquire the Undertaking. The Council cannot be expected to form definite conclusions fon the point at this juncture. At the same time it is obviously unreasonable fo expect the Tramway Company" to contemplate drastic schemes of rehabilitation reconstruction, when the not very' distant future Is une certain. So long as the company Keeps to the conditions under which It holds the franchise and provides the public with a transport service accordingly, it is doing all that a commercial' undertaking. in its poo tion can be called upon to do. It may be asked whether some of the Volatile critics would apely to their own concerns the prescriptions they 90 sally offer to the company. Nor, ooking at the problem from another out of view, is it giMeult to. gine their horror "if the trams Were municipal-owned and the Council, at the trustee for the ratepayers. proposed {6 incur heavy capital expenditure within five years of the possible transfer of the Undertaking to some other authority. Fair is fair: the trams certainly call better to the City's Tig manifestly Mogieal and ineqult= able to assume that the management devoid' of ordinary technical capacity or business enterprise. In fact the "record of the company shows otherwise.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.