TAXI SITUATION

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 87, Issue 38, 16 February 1943, Page 1

TAXI SITUATION

“TOO MUCH JOY-RIDING” (P.A.) Wellington, Feb. 12. "I am far from satisfied with ths taxi situation in some of the main towns, particularly Auckland and Wellington,” said the Minister o£ Transport, the Hon. J. O’Brien, tonight, adding: “There is too much joy-riding and too little service to the public. Many taxi-drivers are doing their best to meet the essential needs of the public, but others are concentrating on the non-essential but more lucrative kind of traffic.) The situation in Wellington has been gone into with the Wellington City Council authorities and the local taxi control committee, and I have decided to appoint a representative of the council to the local control committee and impose a 10-mile limit on taxi journeys in Wellington city and the Hutt Valley. The representative from the City Council on the committee should assist in enabling the committee to exercise better control over taxi-drivers, while the elimination of the longer distance non-essen-tial journeys should put taxi-drivers in a better position to meet essential taxi traffic in the city. The local control committee is authorised to grant permits for trips beyond 10 miles in essential cases.

"The Government finds the petrol and tyres,” concluded the Minister, "to enable the taxis to give service to the people, and if the present restrictions are. not sufficient to cut out the joy-riding which is being indulged In to the detriment of the general public, it will be necessary for me to Impose further restrictions in the near future.”