CRUISE SHIP PASSENGERS

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22591, 22 December 1938, Page 10

CRUISE SHIP PASSENGERS

TOURS UNDERTAKEN BY TAXI-DRIVERS

LICENCES NECESSARY IN FUTURE

(PBEB3 ASSOCIATION TELEGRAM.) AUCKLAND, December 21. Reserved decision was given by Mr F. H. Levien, S.M., in the Magistrate's Court on a recent prosecution against four Auckland taxi-cab drivers charged with carrying passengers from a ship in use chiefly for the transport of tourists on cruising tours to a place outside the radius of 75 miles from Auckland without a licence under the Transport Act. The informations were dismissed. The point in dispute was whether the defendants, who picked up car-loads of passengers from the Orcades on October 28, charging £l2 a car to go to Arapuni, should have had permits from the Transport Department. The Magistrate said there was no evidence to show that the Orcades was used solely as a cruise ship, nox that the taxis provided a passenger service solely for tourists on the cruise ships. Where a regulation or by-law infringed on the rights of the public to use the King's highway, he raid, it should be perfectly clear and unequivocal. The Gazette notice relating to the carriage of passengers from cruise ships would really preclude any vehicle, whether carrying such passengers or any other, from carrying them for a distance exceeding 75 miles from the Post Office.

Regulations to be Amended

In future all ships carrying passengers to New Zealand will be classed as tourist vessels, and it will be necessary for taxi-drivers intending to carry passengers long distances from the city on sight-seeing tours to obtain special licences from the Transport Department. Advice to this effect was received to-day by the No. 1 Licensing Authority, Mr E. J. Phelan, from the Minister for Transport, the Hon. R. Semple. "A Gazette notice is to be issued to clarify the position, and to correct the present fault in the regulations affecting the matter," said Mr Phelan, "We do not wish to be prosecuting taxidrivers who have seen fit in the past to take the law into their own hands. They must understand that they will be covered by the regulations in the future, and .rnust obtain licences to operate beyond the city limits."

It was also pointed out that the regulation would operate immediately, to cover the arrival of three cruise ships at Auckland within the next 10 days.