CARS AND CABS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXX, Issue 155, 29 December 1910, Page 8

CARS AND CABS.

THE HIRED CARRIAGt. CHRISTMAS TRADE. Christmas has brought some improvement in the taxi, hansom, and pair horse landau trade, and not before it was wanted. Fully qualified practitioners with all three, vehicles were unanimous to-day in describing the pre-Christ-mas trade as positively awful. How much extortionate fares in the past have ! had to do with frightening fares away and driving them to tram cars is a very wide question. Tram cars, however, cheap or frequent, can never, cf cour.se, supply the place, of the individual vehicle. A reporter of the Post, to-day, on chatting with some taxi chauffeurs and drivers of horse-pulled vehicles, learned from each that the other was a back number. The taxi man, for instance, had 110 hesitation in assigning a place for tho horse, cab, hansom, or fourwheeler in the limbo of forgotten things. With prophetic eye one of them foresaw a horseless city. Petrol, possibly denatured alcohol, was in time to entirely supplant horse-power for pleasure and commerce. The saving of wear and tear of the streets alone was a point against the continuance of the equine regime, in hi? opinion. Against this there was ths undoubted heavier cost of upkeep for the automobile as compared with the horse cab* THE FARES. "Fares? Well, to charge Is a mile, same' as the cabs, for short distances, and 15s an hour for time with 10s an hour for waiting. We have raised the hour rate to £1 for the holidays as a set-off against the dull times we have been having lately. " Do I think there are too many taxis for the business?" said another chauf- j feur. " Undoubtedly, yes ; there are too many at tho game." In his opinion Wellington is not big enough for the number at the game. We're busy now, but how long will it last?" THE CAB. j The equine point of view was that the taxi had done but little mischief to the horse-power carriage. . " Mind you," said one driver, " anything other than a cab that carries passengers and luggage is in competition with us. We have to struggle against wheelbarrow, taxi, tram, and express cart — all are against our interest. But the taxi is not the strong competition you would think it was. You see, they cost a lot to buy, and a lot to run. After all, where is the fun of dashing around tho Queen's Drive at thirty mile 3an hour, , compared with tho nice, gentle, leisurely drive in a four-wheeled carriage? Why, the taxi charges you l(b 6d an hour for waiting. We — at least, t— charge nothing on a long drive — glad to give the horses a spell while the party is having afternoon tea. "Of course, people like io be seen | flashing along the Quay in a motor-car ; but where does the real enjoyment come in? No; take my word for it, the four- , wheeler and the "hansom will be running a iong time yet — in Wellington, at all events. As it is, however, what with ourselves and the taxis, also the trams and express carts, there are far more % chicles for passengers than the business requires."