NEW TRANSPORT LAW

Dominion, Volume 25, Issue 145, 15 March 1932, Page 8

NEW TRANSPORT LAW

Car Owners Prosecuted INTERPRETATION OF ACT i i < Dominion Special Service. Palmerston North, March 14. Charged with carrying on a passenger service in competition with a char-a-banc service licensed under the Motor Omnibus Act, 1926, Walter Frederick Simms, Sydney H. MeJarrow and Darcy Ross Rutherford appeared in the Magistrate’s Court this morning before Mr. J. L. Stout, S.M. The case was adjourned for a week so that fuller information on the Transport Licensing Act, 1931, could be secured. , Senior-Sergeant Whitehouse said the three defendants operated a car service between Palmerston North and Folding in competition with a char-a-banc service. Two of tbe cars travelled on the same route as the buses, while the third travelled on the Awahuri route, but had the same terminals as the. bus service. Counsel for two of the defendants said that when the Transport Licensing Act was passed it contained a clause that a day should be appointed before March, 1932, for the hearing of applications for licenses in competition. Every effort had been made to ascertain if that day had been appointed, but apparently it had not, as no information was available. Under the circumstances, ho said, there could be no offence under that section of the Act. Applications had been lodged for new licenses with tbe fees paid, but they had not been dealt with. “I do not: know what the Act itself means. It is like a great many of tho others,” said Mr. Stout in adjourning the case.