TAXIS VERSUS BUSES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20969, 4 September 1931, Page 6

TAXIS VERSUS BUSES.

LIVELY COMPETITION. POSITION IN WELLINGTON. There is little stability in any form of transport in Wellington at present. Just as the railway services to the suburbs tave Suffered from motor-bus competition (which also cuts heavily into the harbour Jerries revenue), so the buses are now feeling the pressure of competition by taxis running between the city and suburbs. ;• Taxi-car services have for some time been running all day between Wellington and Lower Hutt and Petone, and similar services hava recently begun running to Khanda'lah and Johnsonville. The fares by taxi are no more than by bus, and journeys are a little quicker. Whereas the Lower Hutt and Petone buses leave their passengers at the Government Printing Office, the taxis take them to the centre of the city. The proprietors of the bus services are seriously perturbed at this encroachment on their territory, and have made appeals to the local licensing authority, the Wellington City Council, to put a stop to it. It is said that none of the taxi services competing with the buses -has been authorised by the licensing authority, and it is believed they are running on the assumption that thfjy are not omnibuses within the meaning of the Act. According to the Act, a "motor omnibus" means a vehicle propelled bv mechanical power and designed solely or principally for the carriage of persons exceeding seven in number, inclusive of the driver, but does not include a vehicle running on rails or a vehicle which, though not running on rails, derives motive power from an overhead wire." As the majority of the new taxis are five and six-seaters, they may not come . within the definition of an omnibus; but still may come within the scope of a motor-omnibas service," which means: "The carriage by motor-omnibus of passengers for hire at fares, however computed, not exceeding for each person the sum of 2s for any journey, counted one way only." . Taxi services similar to those running iito the suburbs from Wellington have been in Invercargill and Auckland. It is 4 understood that action is pending IP-Wellington also.