COMPANY FINED £80

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 211, 3 June 1944, Page 8

COMPANY FINED £80

Carriage Of Horses By Float (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) HAMILTON, June 2. A series of eight charges involving breaches of the oil fuel regulations governing the transport of racehorses were preferred against the De Luxe Horse Transport Company, Limited (Mr. W. J. King) before Mr. Paterson, S.M., today. On each charge the company was fined £lO. The company admitted the charges. Mr. R. J. Dixon, of the Transport Department, Wellington, conducted the prosecution. He said the charges arose from the order restricting the transport of horses to 30 miles in any one trip. In. the present charge the horses .had been carried to and from Auckland in April. Mr. King said that arrangements had been made for the horses to be transported as far as Mercer by river steamer. When several horses fell on the steel deck of the steamer, however, some owners decided to remove their horses from the steamer and send them through by float. The company decided to transport the horses.' The company bad no desire to raise any technical objection to the charges, though they had been made aud upheld in other parts of the Dominion. The magistrate said the question of penalty in such cases was a matter of some difficulty. He could not shut his eyes to the fact that the' regulations were made, to save oil fuel, and were directly connected with the war effort. It was defiance of the authorities.