TAXI FARES BELOW SCALE

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21734, 17 March 1936, Page 18

TAXI FARES BELOW SCALE

—♦—- CHARGES AGAINST FOUR DRIVERS PRIVATE INFORMATIONS LAID The adoption of the suburban stands scheme by Blue Star taxis and the belief held by a rival proprietor led to the latter, Charles Seymour Trillo, employing a labourer, Henry Davis, to engage Blue Star taxis at several parts of the city. In the Magistrate’s Court yesterday, before Mr E. C. Levvey, S.M., informations were laid against four Blue Star drivers by Davis, the allegations being that he was conveyed by them at fares less than those provided in the Christchurch City Council’s fixed scale of charges. The complaint against Frederick Parsons was that on December 12 he travelled from Clarence road to the Square and charged only the suburban rate as from Addington post office to the Square. Sidney Carrington Branch and Austin Arthur Read, it was alleged, carried Davis from Cashel street to the Sydenham post office for Is fid instead of Is lOd, and Leslie James Odgers was alleged to have carried Davis from. Latimer square to the Sydenham post ofllce for the same fare. Mr R. A.. Young conducted the prosecution and Mr A. W. Brown represented all defendants. The case against Parsons, which was heard separately, was dismissed, and the others were convicted and ordered to pay costs. It had been necessary to lay private informations because the deputy-chief inspector of the City Council had refused to take action, said Mr Young. Complaints had been made, and when evidence was produced Trillo was told that the City Council did not propose to act. No Taxi on Stand Davis said in evidence that he went to the Whiteleigh avenue suburban stand. There was no cab there, and Trillo, from the Addington’post office, telephoned the Blue Star central office, who agreed to carry a passenger to the Square for the suburban price of Is fid. Parsons arrived a few. minutes later and took the witness to the Square, the mileage being two and seven-tenths. During the journey Parsons remarked that he had been at Clarence road. Later Davis asked another Blue Star driver to take him from the Square to Sydenham post office for Is fid. The driver refused, however. Trillo, in evidence, corroborated Davis’s evidence. A few days later witness spoke to Parsons, who admitted the facts, and Trillo asked him not to regard it as a personal matter. James William Thin, who checked the distance travelled by the Blue Star cab, said that the mileage as measured by him on a Gold Band taxi was two and eight-tenths. The defence was a rather unusual one, said Mr Brown. On this occasion Parsons was at Clarence road when he received instructions to go to the Whiteleigh avenue stand. He went there and telephoned to his central office, and was then given instructions to pick uo a fare at the Addington post office. By doing that he was withih the provisions of the by-law. He was at Clarence road when he received instructions to go to Whiteleigh avenue and telephone the main office, said Parsons in evidence. He followed the instructions and then received advice to pick un a fare at the Addington post office. This system had been followed for some time and no complaints had been received. To Mr Young, Parsons said that when he left Clarence road he knew that he was about to pick up a fare. He admitted that the fare from Clarence road to the Square would be more than Is fid. “Was It a Subterfuge?” Mr Young: Actually, then, the ringing in at Whiteleigh avenue was just a subterfuge? Parsons: Yes, if you like to call it that. “The case is a very interesting one, and there are two points outstanding,” said the magistrate. “The first is the suggestion that the by-law is being attacked, and the second is that ,by a rather subtle reasoning the defendant seems to be within the law. There is no law to say that he should not arrange as he has arranged. It may be a trick to defeat the by-law. If I accept the evidence of the defendant, he knows there is a job ahead of him, but he does not know what it is. This Is a criminal charge, and there is such a great conflict of evidence that I cannot tell who is telling the truth and who is telling lies. The defendant must have the benefit of the doubt which ,is in my mind.” t The charges against Branch, Odgers, and Read were heard together. Davis said in evidence that Branch took him from Cashel street to the Sydenham post office for Is fid. Immediately afterwards Davis was taken from Latimer square to the Sydenham post office by Odgers. Later Read took him from Cashel street to the same place for the same fare. Corroborative evidence was again given by Trillo. Branch, in evidence, said that he charged strictly according to the set scale of charges. He had no recollection of having driven Davis, He never charged below the scale, said Odgers, and he did not remember having seen Davis before.