"WASTE LANDS."

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 19451, 26 October 1928, Page 6

"WASTE LANDS."

PARKING IN MELBOURNE. A surprise awaited motorists who drove into some of the streets of Melbourne recently to leave their cars in areas formally constituted by tlie City Council as parking areas. They were met by plain-clothes attendants who demanded Is parking fee, claiming that they represented the Highway Association. They distributed circulars indicating that the area of land was licensed from the Crown, and was now a "private open-air garago." 'Enquiries revealed that the circular was distributed by "J. T. Millane, secretary pro tem of the Highway Association." The circular, a remarkable document, endeavoured to justify the collection of the parking fee by a private individual. After the recent judgment of the Supreme Court quashing the City Council by-law for the payment of a parking fee, tho parking areas in the streets, it was claimed, became "waste land,"' and were now legally public leasehold or freehold land which could be used for any business whatever. Anyone was entitled to peg out and license these areas as any nialleo selector or immigrant. Owners of motors using the areas were advised to pay in advance or buy weekly tickets. Vehicles, it was impudently claimed, could bo detained till payment was made. Surplus funds, it was said, were to be used for the protection of patrons from "Melbourne City Council vexatious prosecutions." Nobody in the city had heard of the "Highway Association," and by noon City Council officials who investigated the reports could find none of the men who operated in the streets. It was estimated that anything from £lO to £ls was paid in fees by unsuspecting motorists.