Taxicab Troubles.
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" Our Motorcab Topics '' pages set forth, if somewhat briefly, evidences of certain difficulties, the existence of. which cannot be denied. Any new development of transport, and particularly one which so immediately touches the public as that of conveyance by hackney carriage is obliged to pass through a process of evolution, before the establishment of custom and practice can be claimed to have been achieved. Whilst we have at all times been in sympathy with drivers of public-service vehicles, whether motorbuses or rnotorcabs, the wisdom of the principle, that the individual must suffer rather than the public, cannot be seriously questioned,. and we do not wonder that Mr. Gladstone re-quoted it when meeting last Monday's deputation. There may,. none the less, be occasion for some modification of the conditions which are now held ta necessitate the refusal by the Public Carriage Office of the renewal of a driver's license, though we are inclined to think, in respect of the case cited by Mr. Sam Michaels, that a man who. would disclose viciousness of character by acting cruelly towards his horse might become very much more dangerous when put in charge of a motorcar. The men,, through their society, have set out their case in clear terms, and they can be sure that it will be reviewed in a proper and dispassionate manner.
So far as a variety of tariffs goes, in respect of which Paris appears to present the most ludicrous example, we can only hope that the recent labours of a special committee of the Association of Municipal Corporations will lead to a standardisation of rates in the majority of ourprovincial towns. If Parisians have found themselves unable to grasp the niceties of extra charges according to. the luxury of the coachwork and other features, which is the case, the argument in support of the English preference for a uniform tariff for public vehicles, and recourse to private-hire bargains for other jobs, is thereby very greatly strengthened.