BOROUGH COUNCIL WINS BUS APPEAL.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18028, 13 December 1926, Page 9

BOROUGH COUNCIL WINS BUS APPEAL.

[JUDGE REVERSES THE MAGISTRATE’S DECISION. (Special to the “ Star.”) AUCKLAND, December 13. “I am of opinion that the respondent should have been convicted of the offence charged. The appeal is allowed, and the case is remitted back to the Magistrate to record a conviction accordingly.” Thus Mr Justice Adams this morning dn a reserved judgment which closed the lengthy litigation which has ruled on the question of the running of the buses at Takapuna. The appeal was one on law fVom the determination of Mr W. R. M'Kean at Auckland in dism.ssing an information charging Alfred Hendry Smith with carrying on within the motor omnibus district of Takapuna a motor omnibus service (now the notorious “yellow buses”) otherwise than pursuant to the authority of a license granted him by the licensing authority appointed under the Motor Omnibus Act, 1926. The appellant was the Takapuna Borough Council. For upwards of two years the respondent had carried on a motor omnibus service from Devon port within No. 1 district to Milford, within the No. 2 district. Part of the route was along the Tramway track in Takapuna. Respondent had applied to the local authority of the No. 1 district i Auckland City Council), for a license under section 5 of the Act. It was not disputed that respondent had done everything he was required to do to put the application in order, and that a license would have been granted but for the suggestion that the licensing authority of No. 1 district had no jurisdiction to grant a license authorising respondent to carry on a motor omnibus service within the district of No 2. The Magistrate concluded that the No. 1 district licensing authority had authority to grant the license and for that reason thought the respondent Smith should not be convicted. Mr Justice Adams, however, thought otherwise,