TAXI-DRIVER ROBBED

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 24022, 10 August 1943, Page 6

TAXI-DRIVER ROBBED

THREATENED WITH GUN WELLINGTON INCIDENT (P A.) WELLINGTON, August 9. “This is a stick-up. Keep your eyes to the front,” was the order a Wellington taxi-driver says he received when, late on Saturday night, his fare had reached the place to which he had asked to be driven. The driver had chanced to glance round when the fare spoke, and the point of a gun indicated that there was real moaning in the remark. The driver told a reporter to-day that he had picked up the fare near the railway station at 10.5 p.m.. and had been asked to drive to Newtown. The passenger did not know the name of the road, but said it v.as about a quarter of a mile through the zoo. In the locality of the zoo he indicated Sutherland road, and about 100 yards further on told the driver to slop. H: appeared to be alighting when he made his purpose known. He demanded the driver's wallet, and then asked where the money was, and the driver was forced to tell him. The wallet was returned to him without the notes it had contained. The passenger then rsked the driver if he valued his life, and ordered him to go straight down the road and keep on going, and added that if the driver came back he would be shot. The driver went down the road for rbout a quarter of a mile, and then went to a house where he telephoned the police. Tie .then returned by a different route to the police station. The driver said three men had taken their belts off to him earlier in the evening, when he had told them he was proceeding to a hospital job. He had reported them to a nearby policeman. The manager of one taxi concern said that several of his men had been attacked recently in dark places in Wellington. Another reported case of a taxi hold-up-is that of a driver who was attacked. by four men in Wadcstown. The driver was so severely injured that he had to be taken to hospital.

FEW CARS OUT AT NIGHT

DRIVERS’ REQUEST FOR PROTECTION (P.A.) WELLINGTON, August 9. The frequent beating-up of drivers, culminating in two armed robberies during the week-end, led to remarkable developments in the operation of taxi services in Wellington to-night. Though the night was stormy, and cabs were in demand, only a skeleton roster was being maintained, compared with that usually available. Three cabs only out of a fleet of more than 50 belonging to one company were available, ana out of a double' headed roster 25 drivers did not report for duty between 5.30 p.m. and 9.30 p.m. Sixteen 'rivers out of 23 attached to another company went home at nightfall, though assigned for duty between 6 and 10 p.m. The practical cessation of these services was stated to be due to the drivers’ request for adequate protection from the many attacks reported to have been made on them by certain visiting servicemen. Taxi-drivers in the'city said to-night that matters had reached such an intolerable situation that some action would have to be taken. They indicated that there was a likelihood of very few cabs being available for these servicemen. Mr W. Duncan, principal of a Wellington t?xi comnanv. said that an appeal had been made to the Taxicab Control Committee for protection, but nothing seemed to have been done. “If these servicemen cannot get a cab when they want it.” he said, "they either smash the car up or bash the driver."