Motorcab Topics.
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Melbourne is finding taxicabs of great use, and the number in service will shortly be increased to 5o.
Th, advent of motorcabs in Brussels has led to a strike of the horseLab drivers, who have caused grave public inconvenience by their action, for which they will suffer hereafter.
The Manchester Motor Garage Company, Limited, has been registered with a capital of si.:;5,000 to carry on the business of proprietors of motorcabs, omnibuses and other merhanically driven vehicles. The address of the registered office is The Garage, Hardman Street, Manchester.
Rumours are again current in the financial world that the directors of the General Motor Cab Company, Limited, are contemplating the issue of five per cent, debentures to the value of -.1:400,000. It appears, however, that, even were such an issue decided upon, the interests of the deferred shareholders would not suffer.
The Way the Wind Blows.
The directors of Campbells. Limited, which company owns an old-established jobmaster's business in Aberdeen, have decided that it is advisable to reduce the capital to a large extent ia view of the abnormal depreciation of the company's property. This depredation is admitted to be the direct result of the introduction of mechanically-propelled vehicles for public and private hiring purposes. Not only has the competition of motor vehicles greatly reduced the earnings of the company's horse-drawn vehicles, but
the price which the stock will fetch in the open market is rapidly falling.
Taxicab Licensing at £15 per Annum.
The Town Council of Johannesburg imposes an annual license fee of per vehicle on taxicabs, but, in spite of this seemingly extortionate charge, The Transvaal Taxi Cab Company, Limited, lias made a start with a mo.
torcab service for the town. It is understood that the Town Council concluded that the additional damage to the road surfaces which would result from the employment of each public-service motor vehicle might reasonably be assessed at the high figure quoted above as the cost of a license. It is assumed locally that this charge will be reduced in the near future, when it is realised that the damage to road surfaces is of little moment. It is intended shortly to have a fleet of twenty taxicabs running in the Golden City.
An M.C.D.P.A. Concert.
A concert is advertised to take place al Caxton Hall, kVestminster, under the auspices of The Motor Cab Drivers' Protection Association on Alonday, the zoth March next. The Hon. Rupert Guinness, M.P. who is President of the National Society of Chauffeurs, and Messrs. S. F. Edge, H. Danger, and Sam Michaels are to occupy the chair (luring the evening. A comprehensive programme has been arranged for this concert, and not the least interesting items should be the singing
competition. Two presentation cups (presented by Mann and Overton, Limited) and a gold bracelet (presented by the proprietors of "The Chauffeur ") are offered "for the best song by the wives and sweethearts of motor cabmen." The object of the promoters is to obtain hinds to relieve the sureties in a recent liability case during which very considerable costs were incurred.
"2380 Columbus."
The Fifth Avenue Coach Company and the New York Transportation Company adopt enterprising methods in order to secure new traffic. We have before us smartly-written pamphlets in which the conditions under which both motorcabs and motorbuses may be hired for private service. Would-be patrons are exhorted to ring up the garage in East Eighty-eighth Street at any hour of the day or night, when orders will be at once executed, regardless of the hour. The motorbuses which are offered for private hire are quaintly described as "our smart new London buses with their sixteen very comfortable seats inside and eighteen reasonably comfortable seats on the upper deck." Five dollars per hour is charged for the hire of motorbuses for theatre parties, picnics, excursions, etc. The taxicabs belonging to this company are now operating under reduced tariffs: the charges are 30 cents for the first half mile and to cents for each quarter mile thereafter. Luggage is charged for at the rate of zo cents per trunk.