TAXI-MEN TERRORISED

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22210, 10 September 1935, Page 14

TAXI-MEN TERRORISED

ASSAULTS AND THREATS REFUSAL TO PAY FARES MANY CASES IN SYDNEY The stabbing of Stanley Brown, aged 46, a taxi-driver, at Alexandria, Sydney, recently, is said by owners of taxicabs to have been only one of a series of attacks on drivers that have taken place in Sydney in recent years. The companies assert that there is what amounts to a reign of terror, that their drivers are assaulted by men who have had the use of the vehicles for hours, and, worst of all, are intimidated lest they should give information to the police. Drivers have been warned that their lives will be in jeopardy if thev do not remain silent. Although executives of tho larger taxicab companies in Sydney are inclined to accept the theory that a madman was responsible for the attack on Mr. Brown, they say that there are men in Sydney who are capable of committing almost any crimo merely to avoid paying a faro. Scores of taxi-drivers in Sydney had been intimidated, or assaulted, by men who had hired their cabs and had then refused to pay the fare. Sometimes the drivers had been robbed as well. Tho assaults had not been frequent, but they had been sufficiently numerous and savage to frighten other drivers, who, in similar circumstances, had preferred the loss of their faro to the risk of assault. Two Men Sent to Prison Comparatively few complaints had been made, because in many cases tho taxi-drivers had been warned that they would suffer if they spoke. Cases reported to the police had been carefully investigated, and in at least two instances the offenders had received long sentences, but the trouble had been that few drivers had been prepared to seek police assistance. This victimisation had become worse with the reduction of fares and the substantial increase in the number of cabs on tho citv streets.

Judge Curlewis commented on the position recently when he sentenced a young man to imprisonment for 2.'i months on a charge of having assaulted a taxi-driver. Disregarding a plea for leniency from the accused man, who wept in the dock, His Honor said: "We have to think of these unfortunate taxicab drivers. They are often robbed, but they are afraid to say anything. This man was afraid to speak at first. They are all afraid to speak, because they know what will happen to them." "There are men in Sydney who would do almost anything rather than pay the few shillings they owe a taxidriver," said the manager of one company. "Sometimes a group of men will drive round half the night, till the meter shows a bill of several pounds, and then will refuse to pay. Sometimes they will simply tell the driver, 'We are not going to pay,' or 'lf you say anything, you know what will happen.' Sometimes the driver is attacked without any provocation. Knocked Down and Kicked "Several months ago one of our drivers went with a fare to Surry Hills. When he opened the door of his cab he was knocked down and brutally kicked. He was off duty for weeks. These assaults do not happen frequently, but the drivers know of these cases, and they fear that if they speak they may be singled out for attack." The secretary of another company said that all cab drivers had to contend with this factor, which they called "scaling." "We have reports of 'scaling' almost every week," he said. "Last night, for example, one of our drivers took a passenger to Randwick, and then was told that he would not be paid. The driver was an elderly man, the passenger a young and strong one. The driver left. What else could he do?" Mr. Brown was in a critical condition in hospital. He had been stabbed in the back with a long, dagger-like knife. Jn his depositions, Mr. Brown stated that he had no idea of the identity of his assailant. The police are considering the possibility that the attacker was insane.