MOTOR SERVICE COMPANIES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3655, 1 April 1924, Page 64

MOTOR SERVICE COMPANIES.

INTERESTING TEST CASE. GISBORNE, March 26. A test case came before the Magistrate, Mr Levy, this afternoon which should prove of considerable interest to motor service companies and taximen. Two motor service companies, registered m Gisborne and running north and south of the town, pick up passengers in various parts of the district, and the point involved was whether the companies should be registered in the counties through which they pass. The Cook County Council proceeded against the A.A.R.D. Motor Company and the Gisborne Motor Service for plying for hire for the carriage of passengers within the Cook County without obtaining a certificate of registration from the local authorities controlling such roads. Plaintiff’s counsel said that the defendants conducted a regular motor ser vice over the county roads. The defendants, in one case, had picked up a passenger at Whangare and brought him to Gisborne/ not having obtained registration as required by the county by-law. Counsel for defendants contended that the council was imposing a tax on residents outside the district for the use of the King’s highway. It was not unusual for a taxi to he engaged on a trip through the North Island, and if such a regulation were enforced by every local body a car proprietor would have to pay £IOO to go as far as Wellington. Counsel contended that there was a difference between plying for hire and carrying passengers on an established service.

The Magistrate reserved his decision