Motorcab Topics.
Page 16
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
A first and final dividend of 6d. in the pound has been declared in the bankrupt estate of the Lancashire Taxicab Co., Ltd., 7, Berry Street, Liverpool.
Sonic owner-drivers are now fitting Palmer Cord tires. A " mush" informed us a few days ago that he had obtained a mileage of over 5,000 miles with a retreaded Dunlop.
Several of London's large motorcab companies are busy turning off drivers whose recent average earnings have been poor. A considerable number of such men are now out of work, and there will be more before long.
The Paris correspondent of the " Financial News " states that the French group which is connected with the General Motor Cab Co., Ltd., proposes, in order to consolidate that company's finances, to issue fresh debentures, and at the same time to reduce the share capital, besides completely reorganizing the concern from an industrial point of view.
The Cycling "Cab gunner."
Cab runners, who compose a class distinct from the cab tout, as they simply follow cabs to assist with the luggage, have in North London, acquired bicycles. They lie in waiting along the main thoroughfares for the heavily-laden rnotoreab. It was, of course, impossible for the runner to keen °ace with a mechanically-propelled cab, but now he simply catches hold of the hood irons and is pulled to the , cab's destination, Hungarian Motorcabs and the Austrian Daimler Co.
Our Berlin correspondent. writes : —" In consequence of an Order of the Hungarian Minister of Commerce that all motorcab companies in Hungary must purchase their vehicles from home works, the Austrian Daimler Motoren-Gesellscha,ft have bought up most of the shares in the Westinghouse Automobile Works in Arad. These works were, floated with a capital of two million crowns, the bulk of the shares being in the hands of a French financial group. It is the 'French group's interest that has been acquired by the Austrian Co. Charles Henry Homer, a _Kennington motoreab driver, charged on a warrant with converting to his own use the sum of £2 9s. 101d. belonging to his employers, the Sharp Motor Cab Co., of Fulham, was committed for trial last week.
The number of motorcabs using the station yard at Victoria for both railways (South Coast and Chatham) is approximately 700 per day. The number at Liverpool Street using the road inside the station is about 500 per day, but this is increased on Saturdays to nearly 700.
Messrs. Charles Clarke and Son, of Chapel Ash, Wolverhampton, are to run a fleet of six Sunbeam landaulet taxicabs. These machines are to be elaborately fitted, and are to be provided with Bruhn's taximeters. Messrs. Clarke's garage is being extended to accommodate this new enterprise.
The Town Clerk of Willesden reports that, in accordance with instructions, he had communicated with proprietors of taxicabs asking them to make arrangements for cabs to ply for hire in Willesden, and had received letters from Mr. H. J. McCarthy, and the British Motor Cab Co., Ltd. The latter suggested the provision of additional cab ranks for taxicabs, The Clerk has now received instructions from the Works and General .Purposes Committee to request the Commissioner of Police to appoint standings for taxicabs outside the Brondesbury and Willesden Green stations on the Metropolitan, Six Months Hard, Robert Messer, a taxicab driver in the employ of Mr. Robert Bell, of Iforseferry Road, was last week indicted at the Old Bailey for converting to his own use the sum of £6 3s. 6d. The prosecution alleged that the prisoner had kept a cab out from the garage for a week, and that, when he returned it, the taximeter was found to have been tampered with. The prisoner admitted his liability with regard to the sum in question, but he denied the tampering charge. He said that the purse containing this money had disappeared from his pocket.. The Common Sergeant said the fraud was a very deliberate one; and sentenced the driver to six months with hard labour. The Lucerne Corporation will grant a motoreab concession in exchange for two horse-cab licences, the purpose of this arrangement being to prevent the horse-cab driver from being extinguished all at once. There should be business worth picking up at Lucerne.
A widely-signed petition has been presented to the Harrogate Town Council asking that a resolution which had already been passed in committee, that all motorcars plying for hire in the borough of Harrogate should be fitted with taximeters, should not be confirmed. The matter was referred back.
Partick Town Council has hitherto spent /90 per annum on the hiring of cabs for the conveyance of magistrates and other officials in the course of the burgh's business. After considerable discussion, it has been decided to purchase a motorcar, at a cost of /427, for the use of the municipality, and in order to avoid the hiring of public-service cabs
Stealing a Cab.
On Friday of last week, a motorcab driver named Merrell, of Notting Hill, was charged before Mr. Fordharn with stealing a taxicab belonging to the National Motor Cab Co., Ltd. It appeared, from the evidence, that the cab was left temporarily on a rank at Kensington, on the evening of the 12th inst., and that, while the driver was in the shelter having his tea, prisoner drove it away. He was detected by a policeman later in the evening, who saw him driving the cab down High Street, Kensington. The policeman, who happened to be passing on a bus, jriniped off and succeeded in stopping the cab and arresting the prisoner. Detective Baker informed Mr. Fordham that the prisoner bore a very indifferent character, had been in the employ of three or four different motoreab companies, and, owing to repeated misconduct, such as returning in the garage under the influence of drink, taking cabs out and abandoning them in the street, paying in short money, had lost situation after situation. His home was in a deplorable condition, not one of his six children being properly clad and fed. Two months hard labour was the result.