USE OF TAXIS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXV, Issue 60, 12 March 1943, Page 3

USE OF TAXIS

ACTION IN VIEW

STATEMENT IN HOUSE

The majority of the passenger services were being maintained without serious inconvenience to the public, but the taxi services required a good deal of attention, stated the Minister of Transport (Mr. O'Brien) in the House of Representatives today. He was replying to an urgent question by Mrs. Stewart (Government, Wellington West) urging an improvement in the present road and taxi services. "In a recent check up of taxis in Auckland," said the Minister, "150 cars were found to be visiting known slygrog establishments. That is more than half the taxis now registered in Auckland, and in a recent sly-grog prosecution police evidence showed that 47 taxis had visited one sly-grog shop in a little over two hours, or at an average rate of one every three minutes. It is noticeable that citizens have extreme difficulty in engaging taxis, while joy-riders and sly-groggers seem to be able to get all they require. - "In order to save petrol for our war effort children have to walk up to a mile and a half to school in the rain and sick people have to produce doctors' certificates before we allow them petrol, and petrol is withheld from passenger services until they are cut to a minimum. If the owners of taxis who cater for sly-grogging and joyriding think they are going to get the petrol thus saved they are making a grave mistake. Regulations have been gazetted giving the Transport Department power to so regulate taxi services that the needs of the general and travelling public will be catered for." Mr.' O'Brien added that some 50 per cent, of the motor-trucks now in use had been over seven years on the road and 35. per cent, had been nine years or even more in use. Considerable difficulty was being experienced by owners in keeping these trucks running, and as they fell out other trucks would have to be found to replace them. The Government was giving urgent attention to the matter.