PENAL FARE ALLOWED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 134, 8 June 1932, Page 5

PENAL FARE ALLOWED.

SHORT-DISTANCE TRAVELLERS LICENSING AUTHORITY CONCESSION. AN EXCEPTIONAL CASE. "I want to point out that the policy of this authority is to protect the short distance operator from the long distance operator, with the double object of ensuring that both will have a reasonable chance to succeed, and with the object of ensuring that the long distance traveller will not be shut out by the vehicles being filled, or partially filled, by people travelling relatively short distances," so stated Mr. J. A. C. Allum, chairman of the No. 2 Licensing Authority at its sitting to-day when the Passenger Transport Co., Ltd., sought the revocation of tho clause which prohibits the picking up and sotting down of passengers between specified points and the substitution of a penal fare. The services concerned were all routes via Onehunga, Great South Road and Ellerslie.

In support of the application, it was stated that the variation was sought purely as a convenience and the prevention of argument between drivers and passengers. Occasionally when a bus stopped to set down a passenger the opportunity would be taken by other people to enter the vehicle, and often when the driver pointed out the illegality of this the intending passengeT remonstrated. "In one case a driver endeavoured to persuade an elderly lady to leave tho bus and she struck liim over the head with her umbrella," stated tho representative for the company, who suggested that the penal fare should be .3d in addition to the full fare from terminus to terminus.

"Experience sliows that the only effective way of giving protection is by prohibiting the operator running a long distance from handling passengers within the limits of the district served by tho short-distance operator. The imposition of penal fares is unsatisfactory, because it cannot be properly checked, whereas tho picking up or setting down of passengers within the limits served by tho shorter-distance operators in itself indicates an infringement of the terms of the license. For that reason wo are very reluctant to grant applications of this kind," added Mr. Allum. In view of tho circumstances of the application the authority decided to grant it, tho penal fare being fixed at threepence.