Motorcab Topics.
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Sixty old London cabmen, whose ages range from 70 to 84, are now in receipt of " Daily Mail " pensions of 2s. 6d. a week for life.
Edinburgh now has the advantage of service from ten 18-20 h.p. CharFon landaulets. These smart vehicles are owned by the Provincial Motor Cab Co., Ltd.
A brief strike of Birmingham taxicab men. occurred at the end of last month, but it was amicably settled within a few hours—much to the disgust of the local horse-cabmen.
Mr. John Cory Withers, a member of the Bristol Board of Guardians, is taking active steps to secure authority to use taxicabs, or to purchase a motorcar, on behalf of that body.
The hiring of taxicabs for week-ends has been remarkably brisk during the past ten weeks. It cost about five guineas, plus the driver's keep and allowances, in the majority of cases.
At the Liverpool Court of Bankruptcy, 011. the 30th ult., his Honour Judge Shand made an order for the compulsory winding-up of the Lancashire Taxicab Co., Ltd., whose registered office is in Berry Street, Liverpool. The petitioning creditor, a Coventry company, had a claim for £600.
Manchester horse-cab drivers state they cannot live on the basis of a sixpenny fare for a short run, say, for half-a-mile. They reckon that the short run is the backbone of the cab trade now, and that a shilling is little enough if regard be paid to the fact that a hirer expects to find the cab waiting.
Whilst, at the 1st July, there were 4,039 hansoms in London for which licences existed, it has to be borne in mind, when any question arises as to the number which are plying for hire daily, that probably no fewer than 1,000 of the total quoted have not been taken out of the yards on many days during the past season.
Bath horse cabmen, in connection with the recent pageant in the Wiltshire Spa, made a further effort to influence the local council in their favour, and to secure adverse treatment for motoreabs. They again failed, and all taxicabs for which applications were made were licensed—as were any other suitable classes of hackney and stage carriages. Hustling the Clockwork.
Fines of 100 francs each, and sentences of imprisonment with hard labour for four months, have been imposed upon three Paris taxi-drivers who accelerated the clockwork of the recorders while their fares were inside buildings.
The Horse-cab Crisis.
A correspondent who signs himself " Cabby," writing to " The -Western Morning News " on the 3th inst., protests that the average horse-cab driver is not a lazy individual, and asserts that horse-cab proprietors are " fighting the game in a proper manner." He proceeds to state : "Taxis will fail here (Plymouth), just as they did in •London, under any conditions." There has not, of course, it is hardly necessary to point out, yet been any failure of taxicabs in London, although we seriously question the ability of the large and heavily-weighted concerns to make the returns which their shareholders were led to anticipate a year ago, and even more recently than that.
Australians Awakening.
The Cabmen's of New South Wales seems as little anxious ID see the taxicab on the streets as its London confreres were. The officers, we are told, are keeping a " watchful eye " on these machines. It is feared that preference may be shown for motors over the horse-drawn vehicles. In fact, the men have taken time by the forelock, and have written to the police superintendent protesting against, any preference in working taxicabs from the ranks, and asking also that no special ranks should be allotted to them. One of the cab proprietors has two taxis on order for experimental purposes, and has expressed his intention of substituting them for his horse vehicles if they prove satisfactory. The public will be the final arbiter in the case of -the taxi, and if it takes to them as it did in London the cabmen's protests will be in vain ; unless they decide to move with the times, in a few rears they will be as badly in need of charity as are the London horse-cabbies. There can be no doubt that business men in Australia are realising at last that the motor has its uses, although up to the present that is strictly limited to the light car. These machines and motorcycles are being purchased for the use of travellers, and it is no uncommon thing to hear of their going off for trips of
two or three months round the State. A large firm of brewers in Sydney has recently purchased two F.1.A.T.s for its travellers, and both are now away on long trips of the kind.
No Reversion to Privileged Cabs.
The Expiring Laws Continuance Bill of this Session of Parliament will contain a clause to re-enact Section 2 of the London Cab and Stage Carriage Act, 1907, which reads : " (1) in the admission of cabs to a railway station, or in the treatment of cabs while in a railway station, the company having the control of the station shall not show any preference to any cab, or give any cab a privilege, which is not given to other cabs ; and, where any charge is made in respect of the admission, of any cab to a railway station for the purpose of plying for hire therein, the charge made shall not exceed such sum as may be allowed by the Secretary of State.
" (2) If it is proved to the satisfaction of the Secretary of State that it will not be possible to obtain a sufficient supply of cabs at a railway station for the proper accommodation of the public, unless the operation of this section is suspended or modified as respects that station, the Secretary of State may by order so modify or suspend the operation of this section with respect to that station, subject to such conditions as may be specified in the order.
" (3) In this section, the expression ' railway station ' includes the precincts thereof and approaches thereto.
" (4) Nothing in this section shall affect the liability of cabs or the drivers thereof to comply with any regulations or conditions which may he made by the company having control of a railway station for the purpose of maintaining order or dealing with the traffic at such station, including regulations as to—
(I) The number of cabs to be admitted at any one time; (II) The rejection of cabs and drivers unfit for admission ; and (III) The expulsion of any cabman who has been guilty of misconduct, or of a breach of the company's byelaws or regulations.
" (5) This section shall come into operation on the first day of January nineteen hundred and eight, and shall remain in force up to the first day of January nineteen hundred and ten."