"PIRATING" ?

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 204, 30 August 1933, Page 5

"PIRATING" ?

SCENIC SERVICES. BUS PROPRIETOR'S PLAINT, NEED TOR CO-OPERATION.

Allegations of "pirating" in connection with motor sight-seeing services in Auckland were made at a meeting of the No. 2 Licensing Authority this morning. ''We have made every endeavour to arrange this eight-seeing business on a satisfactory basis, but if you people can't handle the traffic we will have to do something about it," remarked the chairman, Mr. J. A. C. Allum, after hearing the evidence. A letter forwarded by Mr. J. Rimmer, tht> proprietor of one of three concerns with licenses to run sight-seeing trips one week each in turn, stated that while ho was on the Matson liner Monterey during the week he was running the service in the first half of July he noticed Mr. H. A. Johnston, proprietor of one of the other bus services, on the ship. When he was leaving the liner some of the passengers who had booked to (ravelin his bus came to him and asked to have their trips cancelled, as they had arranged to go with Johnston. Johnston's bus had picked up passengers at the Prince's wharf and had taken them over the regular sight-seeing route. Mr. Rimmer also complained that Johnston's bus was running during the. week allocated to the Auckland Bus Company, so that it was running for two weeks against his own one. Tickets On Liners. In explaining the alleged breaches, Johnston said that in regard to the second complaint there was an arrangej ment between his concern and the Auckland Bus Company for his bus to run. for the A.B.C. and for the takings to be pooled. He was prepared to produce a legal document so that the Authority would see that the arrangement was a genuine one. Concerning the other complaint, he said that he had arranged for his sight-seeing service to be advertised in the Matson Company's journal. He had also -arranged for tickets to be issued on board, but when a ship arrived during a week when he was not running the service the passengers who received his tickets were taken by the other people's bus. On the occasion when he took 19 passengers during Rammer's week the trip had been a contract one. The passengers carried had not received his tickets oi: the ship, but had been got together by one passenger. Appearing for Rimmer, Mr. V. R. Meredith contended that every passenger carried by Johnston on the occasion complained of was taken away from his client. The explanation that the job was a contract one was one of the thinnest he had ever heard of. He asked if the decent and fair thing would not have been for Johnston to have handed over the passengers to Rimmer. Johnston: It was a contract job, for which I received £4. Mr. Meredith: Your attitude is that you can get a lot of passengers during Mr. Rimmer's week and call it a contract job? In answer to further questions Johnston said that the route taken was to the Ellerslie racecourse, Mount Eden, Remuera and Titirangi. He had had only one such contract. It was a common thing for passengers on a ship to make up a party and engage a bus, as they thus got cheaper rates. Such a practice was carried out at Los Angeles, Honolulu and other places. Tourists Confused. Called by Mr. Meredith, Rimmer said that four ladies with tickets given them by Johnston on board the ship had at first refused to travel in his bus, saying that Johnston had said that his bus would be at the end of the wharf. The ladies said they had been told nothing about travelling in witness , bus. Cross-examined by Johnston, witness said Johnston had not told him that four ladies were holding tickets, and that they had not paid. Johnston: lam prepared to swear on oath that I did tell you that. If I did not' why did you collect the money? Witness: My driver will explain that. In answer to another question by Johnston, witness said that he could have accommodated about six of the 19 passengers carried in the contract party. Mr. Allum: Why you people don't get together and pull together is past my understanding. You come here and complain about losing 19 passengers, and then admit that you could have accommodate only six of them. It is wrong for any proprietor to tout for passengers on his week off, but at the same time the travelling public must be considered. You people are simply asking us to take this sight-seeing business into our hands. Mr. Meredith said that it was a flagrant breach of good faith for one man to go on board a ship and "pirate" on another man's day. Mr. Allum (to Mr. Meredith): Can t you use your good offices to get the parties to come together? Wβ dont want to interfere if we can. help it, but all this bickering is no good cither for the operators or for the city. This sightseeing business wants to be taken by the scruff of the neck and shaken. Mr. Meredith: Do you suggest that I should do the shaking? Mr Allum: You are the most competent person I can think of for the job. Mr. Meredith: Very well then. It was decided that the points before the authority should be deferred, and that Mr. Meredith should endeavour to assist the parties to come to a satisfactory agreement.