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      Wellington : Biography of a City

      Wellington : Biography of a City
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      OCR

      [...]Wellington Tramway
      Company dispatched three steam-tram engines, each hauling a trailer, from its
      terminu[...]er, a downside to steam-power: cinders emitted by tram boilers
      frightened the city’s horses, and resid[...]depression took hold in the late
      1870s, the steam-tram business was regularly up for public auction. In[...]e back into vogue, and proved so popular that the tram
      70



      A horse tram heads north along
      late Victorian Lambton Q[...]
      [...]uay. But demand for its services grew, as bus and tram wheels shredded
      the road surfaces. Municipal work[...]; the riff-raff of Te Aro Flat regularly took the tram
      to Tinakori Road to gamble in its leafy sh[...]
      [...]l such an
      obstacle that there was talk of a cable-tram fram Aro
      Valley.’ Some thought the solut[...]
      [...]iant.**

      The midnight debut of the first electric tram in June 1904 followed years of chaos,
      disruption,[...]Town Hall. The electric | °Pening of the Seatoun tram line
      included Miss Molly Fabian’s
      presentation of a bouquet to the
      Lady Mayoress.

      tram hastened the end of the horse-drawn age an[...]
      [...]nd councillors attended a ceremony at the
      Newtown tram-sheds, returning to town in a special car for lun[...]e."*

      The municipality reopened an existing horse-tram line, a profitable service
      between Thorndon and N[...]he cit
      engineer, working on plans for an electric tram service, proposed an overhea
      trolley system.** De[...]A deputation nearly
      persuaded the Council to lay tram-tracks through the middle of the Basin Reserve,
      t[...]of the profits. Under state ownership, he argued,
      tram fares would drop.“’ Believing that pub[...]
      [...]as too early
      to ride to work on the private cable tram to Kelburn, which opened in 1902. He

      base[...]
      [...]ngalows. The
      municipality pensioned off its horse-tram service weeks after the electric trams
      began oper[...]through the city: ‘With much civic pride, the [tram]
      car traversed all routes adorned with flowers an[...]assets began to develop.

      Such was the demand for tram travel that there was talk of people being
      ‘hur[...]er fare or
      rushed up to get out’.

      By 1910, the tram-tracks stretched for 22 miles, nearly a th[...]
      [...]lation was proposed after Parliament
      heard that a tram licensed to carry 45 passengers had left A[...]
      [...]ed all the way
      to Seatoun by Christmas. Getting a tram through to the isolated township of
      Kilbir[...]
      [...]lex legislation relating to differential rating.

      Tram-power also transformed the social life of the cit[...]picnickers on their day off.
      They stepped off the tram at the end of Onepu Road, had a cup of tea at the[...]le Inn is visible (left) behind
      a passing council tram.

      Terence Hodgson collection


      [...]men when he ripped down
      advertising boards from a tram
      outside Kirkcaldie & Stains.

      ATL, F-30365[...]
      [...]fting their legs. Two of our men then jumped on a tram each and when
      the trams reached their term[...]
      [...]a list of Council dead, and a general tribute
      to tram conductors ‘who had succumbed to the dis[...]
      142

      Council workers pouring tar on
      newly laid tram lines in
      Customhouse Quay, 1930.

      WCA, 001[...]
      [...]ncillors in February that ‘recent explosions on tram lines’ had been referred to
      police.'* Co[...]
      [...]1 the
      busy Tramways Department hired its
      first ‘tram girls’ or ‘conductorettes’,
      dressing[...]
      [...]1945, the municipality announced that
      one of the tram routes would be changed over to single-operator t[...]s replaced
      the Tinakori Road and Wadestown trams. Tram-lines along the Northland, Karori,
      Brookly[...]
      [...]ed opiate of the people. Every

      available bus and tram was brought into service on 23 June 1956,[...]
      [...]lot Wellington’s — and New Zealand's — last tram
      on its final journey, from Thorndon to the Newtown tramTram, crammed
      with civic dignitaries and draped in the[...]age ‘End of Line’

      Many saw the demise of the tram as a victory for the motor car. Older people
      in p[...]airman of the transport committee, waved the last tram off, a cigar between

      his teeth; for the man driv[...]souvenir ticket issued for the
      ast ever municipal tram ride,
      182 WELLINGTON



      The last tram makes its final run,

      was a happy ending. ‘Iram[...]t’, revealed its impatience with the antiquated tram,
      describing the ‘familiar, unsuccessful[...]
      [...]On Sunday
      21 June 1964, only weeks after the last tram rattled off to the
      Newtown depot, a TEAL E[...]
      [...]c Islander 254, 254
      First working class 98-9
      Free tram travel 107
      Labour Party 159-60, 168
      Paid 1[...]
      [...]72, 176, 180, 183,
      195, 196, 198, 207
      Drives last tram 181-2, 182
      Frank Kitts Park 256
      Loses elec[...]
      [...]Brass band 181
      Buses and 136, 137, 167
      Cable car tram 105, 176, 205
      City-owned 91,99, 104-8
      ‘C[...]