MOTOR BUS LICENSES

Evening Star, Issue 19411, 20 November 1926, Page 11

MOTOR BUS LICENSES

PLYING IN TWO DISTRICTS question of dual control [Per United Press Association.] AUCKLAND, November 19. The question of licenses for motor buses plying from one licensing district to another forms the subject of an important judgment delivered by Mr W. H. M'Kean, S.M. The Takapuna Borough Council, as the No. 2 licensing authority, prosecuted A. H. Smith for running without a license;® bus service between Devonport, which is in the No. 1 district, and Takapuna. The defendant applied to the No. 1 licensing authority for a license, but the application has not yet been dealt with. The Magistrate remarked that, as defendant was still carrying oh the service and had not obtained a license from any licensing authority, he had committed, technically, at any rate, a breach of the provision of the Act. However, it would be wrong to penalise him while the application was still pending.. The real question at issue was whether it was necessary for the defendant to apply to, the licensing authority for each district for a license for his omnibus service. To give effect to this contention, certain alterations to the Act would be necessary.

“ It may bo that it was the intention of the Legislature to give to each licensing authority the right to , control all omnibus services operating in its district,” said the Magistrate. “ If that intention has not been expressed in clear and unambiguous language, it canhot be given'effect to by a consideration of the policy of the Act. I think the language of the Act is not sufficiently clear to enable me to say that the Legislature intended that two licenses should be necessary for any one service.” After dealing with the question of the insurance policy which was required to bo deposited with the licensing authority, the Magistrate said: “It seems to me the idea of dual control is one that did not occur to the Legislature. The constitution of Takapuna as a separate district forming an island in the midst of a wide district may have been an after thought, and certainly created a position for which the provisions necessary, if any sort of dual control had' been intended, have not been made. In the circumstances I think this charge should be dismissed. As the matter is one of difficulty, and is regarded ns of some importance, 1 have discussed it with my fellow-magis-trates, and they agree with me.”