TRANSPORT OF TOURISTS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23689, 22 December 1938, Page 9

TRANSPORT OF TOURISTS

TAXIS REQUIRE LICENCES NOTICE TO BE ISSUED AUCKLAND PROSECUTIONS FAIL iPeb United Press Association) AUCKLAND, Dec. 21. Reserved decision was given by Mr F. H. Levien, S.M., in the. Magistrate's Court on the recent prosecution against four Auckland taxicab drivers charged with carrying passengers from a ship in use chiefly for the transport of tourists on cruising tours to a place outside a radius of 75 miles from Auckland without a licence under the Transport Act. The informations were dismissed. The point in dispute was whether the defendants, who picked up carloads of passengers from the Orcades on October 28, charging £l2 a car to go to Arapuni, should have had permits from the Transport Department. The magistrate said there was no evidence to show that the Orcades was used solely as a cruise ship nor that the taxis provided a passenger service solely for tourists on the cruise ships. Where the regulation or by-law infringed on the rights of the public to use the King's highway, he said, it should be made perfectly clear and unequivocal. The Gazette notice relating to the carriage of passengers from cruise ships would really preclude any vehicle, whether carrying such passengers or any others, from carrying them for a distance exceeding 75 miles from the Post Office.

In future all ships carrying passengers to New Zealand will be classed as tourist vessels and it will be necessary for taxi drivers intending to carry passengers for long distances from the city on sight seeing tours to obtain special licences from the Transport Department. Advice to this effect was received to-day by the No. 1 Licensing Authority, Mr E. J. Phelan, from the Minister of Transport (Mr R. Semple). A Gazette notice is to be issued to clarify the position and to correct the present fault in the regulations affecting the matter, said Mr Phelan. "We do not wish to be prosecuting taxi drivers who have seen fit in the past to take the law into their own hands. They must understand that they will be covered by regulations in future and must obtain licences to operate beyond the city limits." It was also pointed out that the regulation would operate immediately in order to cover the arrival of the three cruise ships at Auckland within the next 10 days.