TAXI SYSTEM TO BE INVESTIGATED

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21827, 6 July 1936, Page 10

TAXI SYSTEM TO BE INVESTIGATED

MINISTER’S DECLARATION

“NOTHING SHORT OF

SLAVERY”

(PRESS ASSOCIATION TELEGRAM.)

AUCKLAND, July 4

The Minister for Transport (the Hon. R. Semple) said to-day that he was instituting a commission of enquiry into the Wellington taxi system, and hoped to extend the enquiry to cover the whole of New Zealand, as the system existing at present had been abused by certain individuals until it had reached the position where it was a disgrace to the country. “The Government is going to clean them up,” he declared. “I believe that more or less the same conditions as in Wellington are ruling in other centres. The wages and conditions of some drivers are nothing short of slavery. Some night drivers are earning aboyt £1 weekly and getting sustenance to keep them. “The question of owner-drivers is, to some extent, equally bad. Some do not own one spoke of the wheel of the cars they drive.” Mr Semple hinted that one of the methods under consideration would be the fixing of fares so that the scale was the same right through the Dominion. There was not going to be cut-throat competition, sweating, or pirating of any kind.