WELLINGTON TAXI OWNERS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24826, 28 January 1942, Page 4

WELLINGTON TAXI OWNERS

PROPOSAL TO RAISE FARES APPLICATION NOT IN ORDER (P.A.) WELLINGTON, Jan. 27. Six representatives of the New Zealand Taxi Proprietors’ Federation (Wellington branch) waited upon the Wellington Metropolitan Licensing Committee to-day concerning a proposal to raise the fares. A letter accompanying the application stated that taxi-cab owners were finding it difficult under the heavy restrictions placed on petrol to maintain a reasonable standard of living, and they sought permission to raise the charge of all meter journeys by one shilling. The chairman, Mr T. C. A. Hislop, said that the application was not in order, and therefore the authority could not consider it. He indicated that the Act under which the authority was constituted provided that such applications for increases in fares had to come from individual licensees, and not from an organisation such as the federation. Such applications had to be made individually, each one to be accompanied by a fee of 10s. If all the taxi proprietors put in applications the matter could be dealt with; but' should there be some who did not apply, a notice would have to be inserted in the newspapers calling attention to the proposal, and asking for any possible objections. If objections were received further advertisements would have to be inserted calling the attention of all taxi owners to such objections. Mr G. N. Shaw, representing the owners, said that when an alteration was made in the fares on a previous occasion a committee attended to it. It was replied that this was only an alteration in the fares for wedding taxis, and was made under a council by-law, but now the matter was vested in the Metropolitan Licensing Authority, which had to follow the law as laid down in the Act. ‘