TAXI FAKES IN CHRISTCHURCH

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22343, 5 March 1938, Page 24

TAXI FAKES IN CHRISTCHURCH

TO I'Kl EDITOR 01' TUB PRESS. Sir,—At last the owner taxi-drivers are beginning to squeal- because Mr Semple does not agree with them, as shown by your correspondent, "Fair Play," in "The Press" of Thursday, who complains bitterly against Mr Semple for enforcing taxi meters and lower fares. But why should the owner-drivers complain? They brought Mr Semple down to Chnstchurch last June to run over me with his steam roller, and also asked him to take over the control of the taxi business because I had brought the fares down to practically what Mr Semple has now ruled must be charged. "Fair Play" asks: "Will Mr Semple, or any other, say that there has been any complaint about excessive charges in Christchurch?" So I am accepting this challenge by stating that there is no end of complaints about excessive charges both with owner-drivers and my own drivers, and "Fair Play" knows it too. I happen to be the only one who appealed against the Licensing Authority in favour of meters, and the sooner I get them fitted the better I will like it, because the public will see by the meter what they have to pay and there will be no further complaints of overcharging. So my advice to ownerdrivers and others in the taxi business is to take their medicine like men, as it was they who asked Mr Semple to settle the taxi war for them, and now they have been bitten badly in various ways. Amalgamation of the whole of those in the taxi business is the only cure to bring about better conditions by way of good wages and shorter hours. —Yours, etc., C. S. TRILLO March 4, 1938