AN INNOVATION.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2709, 13 January 1910, Page 2

AN INNOVATION.

FARTHING TRAM FARES

Farthing tramway fares arc now in operation upon nearly 600 miles of tramway controlled or worked by the British Electrical Federation in some parts of London, and in about tliirty provincial towns. This reform will not only mark an important development in 'tlie history of tramways, but will doubtless prove a financial epoch, inasmuch as it will rehabilitate the purchasing power of a farthing. There are no" individual farthing faros. The minimum fare in most cases is a halfpenny; in some towns .it is a -penny. Each line, however, is marked out in farthing stages, and fares above the minimum ot a halfpenny or a- penny are reckoned in farthings. An official of the Electrical Federation said: “AA’e have considered the -objection which might be urged that in many towns, particularly in the North of England, the farthing has ceased to be recognised as a coin, and ffe*t it is generally refused when tendered. AYe shall supply our conductors with farthings for change, and when the public find that we will take them, they will readily enough tender them. There will also be a system of books of tickets, which will preclude any objections on the score of handling money at all.”