OVERCROWDING TRAMCARS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIII, Issue 9, 11 January 1902, Page 5

OVERCROWDING TRAMCARS.

HEAVY FINES

At 'the Police Court this morning Mr H. W. Brabant, S.M., gave judgment in the cases Police v. William Tretheway and Charles Fisher, defendants being charged that on 27th December, being the guards of tramcars, they did allow the same to be overcrowded. The. defence was that although the vehicles were overcrowded the 'guards did not "allow" it. . . v Mr Martin argued for the defence ■that the guards could not be said to allow the overcrowding, because it would be impossible for them to prevent it, except by using force to eject the passengers in excess of the proper number, and that the persons attending the race meeting were a rough class of people, who would resent such treatment. His Worship said that in such eases the defence had always been that the overcrowding was the fault of 'the public, and not the Tramway officials. He did not think the people attending such race meetings were so unruly as the defence made out. By section 7 of the Police Offences Act, the Legislature had thrown upon the guards of public vehicles the responsibility of preventing overcrowding. He did not think it was his place to direct the guards how they were to get rid of the excess of passengers; but in his opinion a guard must be held'to allow the overcrowding if he did not take some reasonable and proper steps to . prevent what the statute says he shall not allow. With regard to Mr Martin's contention that a notice was posted in one car warning people that it was full, and that all who boarded it would be prosecuted, he did not think that the exhibiting of a notice that the car. was full, and at the same times, allowing it to be overcrowded, was a sufficient defence. Nor did he i think that a mere perfunctory statement to the passeng-ers that the ear was too full, and that some of them must leave, without insisting, or, as in one of the present cases, giving them any opportunity to do so, could be a compliance with the statute. The constable's evidence showed that when stopped Fisher's car was grossly overcrowded, and that the guard was on the car, and must have noticed it. In these cases... then, as in former prosecutions, His Worship was unable to conclude from the evidence thai the Tramway officials made any bona fide effort to prevent 'the overcrowding, and certainly the way in which Constable Dart was treated by the Inspector led him to a contrary conclusion. If the Tramway officials had wished to prevent the overcrowding they would have been glad of the assistance of the police. He also thought that the law-abiding section of the community who used the tramcars in a reasonable and proper manner were deserving of consideration, and that the Bench should assist them to obtain that consideration -at the hands of the the Tram Company if it could be done without straining the law.

Defendants would be fiped £5 each and costs.