CABMAN’S GREAT RECORD

Hawera Star, Volume LII, 25 January 1933, Page 6

CABMAN’S GREAT RECORD

CVEK HALF A CENTUKY. FI FTY-FI FT 11 ANNI'A h JA C FNCF. Fifty years’ service ay a eao drive) in, tile eiiy of Brisbane and never an accident to a passenger, is the proud record of Air. J red de Jersey, who took out iris'doth annual license at the beginning of the Few Year. He claims it as a world record. The profession of cab driving is not what Jr used to be, and probably soon the present generation will have seen the last of the Jehus, but a lifetime of faithful service such is Air. do Jersey has rendered to Brisbane entitles him to distinction. His command of the rein is as good as ever, and the hansom is in the excellent condition that has made tire owner a popular driver with many leading citizens of Queensland in Jus long career. The owner ceases work at nightfall nowadays, whereas in the old times, when the hotels used' to close at midnight, the cay’s work may be said to have barely begun when the night ser in. In those days passengers who had to be driven home at midnight or | later were sometimes inclined to be J cantankerous. On those occasions the [cab driver had to be possessed of skill l in other matters than mere horse control—the fare had either to be humoured or hammered. If a passenger declined to pay, either the cabby wan prepared to wait till morning or 110 would proceed to ‘•‘take it out of ins hide.” Sometimes, of course, the result would be unfavourable for the cabman, who, however, was a philosopher, and did not brood over his i wrongs. in 187 D, when. Air. do Jersey began lias call driving career, he was Number 84. To-day his cab is No. ], and is the only vehicle of its kind in Brisbane There is hut one other licensed cab in the metropolis, and that is a four-wheeler. The first- eabs known in Brisbane were called “Melbourne Cars”; two-wheeled affairs in winch the passengers sat hack to back, much on the same principle of the Irish hunting car. At one time there were as many as 300 licensed horse cabs in Brisbane, 60 of them being hansoms. The veteran recalls, with a smile, that he once drove the late Air. James Tyson to catch the Sydney boat, only to find on arrival at the wharf that the boat was swinging around the Kangaroo Point. The old gentleman