CONTROL OF TAXIS

Hawera Star, Volume L, 11 September 1930, Page 8

CONTROL OF TAXIS

NEED FOR DEDAL PROVISION

LABOUR MEMBER’S BILL

Accident risks are featured 'largely in the Motor Cabs Dill, which was introduced in the House of Representatives on Tuesday by Mr. H. G. It. Mason (Lab., Auckland Suburbs), who expressed the hope that it- would be adopted as a- Government measure. Mr. Mason said members might not know that if, when driving a car they collided through their own negligence with a taxi-cab, also negligently driven, they would have the priviledge of paying for their own negligence, but. would have no l'emedy for the negligence of the other party—a curious position. The taxi not being driven by the owner, tlio owner of the eab could sue the other driver for negligence, but the latter could not set off against that the negligence of the taxi-driver,

who was looked on as a. stranger. Thus if in such circumstances the collision was due to mutual negligence, one had to pay, and had no recourse against the owner of the oilier vehicle. The one who had to pay could not sue the owner of the other vehicle, which was quite a one-sided and indefensible position, although it arose out of a well understood legal principle. The Bill sought to put that position right. The Bill also sought to deal with another problem. Because a taxi-driver was a bailee of a cab and not a servant of the owner, there was no control over the eab bv the Arbitration Court, and there, was no limit to the hours a man might work. Thus it happened that some taxi-drivers worked almost ‘24 hours a day, in the stress of competition, and, becoming sleepy by the long hours, they constituted a danger not only to those hiring Lire eab but to other users of the road. The Bill sought to give ibe Arbitration Court tht* jurisdiction it did not. now possess.

A third problem also came within the scope of the Bill. The driver of a taxi-cab bad no remedy under the Workers’ Compensation Act, as no master and servant relationship existed. The Bill sought to set the position right. Mr. Mason said lie understood tLie Bill had the sympathy of the Minister of Labour, Hon. S. G. Smith, although Mr. Mason did not say tin* Minister was committed to the details of drafting, Me would later ask that the Bill should be referred to the Labour j Bills Committee and he hoped there | to have the Minister’s help ta make I the Bill thoroughly practicable so that it could he put on the Statute Book at tlm earliest moment. The taxi-cab drivers had expressed the hope that the Minister would even be able to take up the Bill as a Government meas-ure.

Mr. D. G. Sullivan (Lab., Avon), complimented Mr. Mason on his attempt to deal with the problem. In the past the labour laws had been undermined. ancl the Arbitration Court nonplussed. lie desired to impress on flic Government the urgency for such legislation as Mr. Mason proposed. The Bill was read a first time, Mr. Mason said lie would ask for the second reading to be taken pro-forma today.—“ The Dominion.”