TRAMWAY REGULATIONS,

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 308, 22 September 1908, Page 2

TRAMWAY REGULATIONS,

CARS FOR WORKERS. . \ A LONDON EXPERIMENT.' Who is a worker? and who is authorised to : travel on a workers' car? The point; coil- ■ tinually crops up in the rush hours of the - tramways when special cars are set apart for the conveyance of " workers," whoever they may be. People often board cars without pi)-, serving the notice "for workers only," and occasionally they are asked ' if' they " are workers. It is difficult to decide who is'a worker and who is not, but if a person says he or she is of that class then he or she is, , in the eyes of the tramway authorities, a worker, if only for the time being. L ' The only exception made in Wellington is in the case of ladies with children, who > scarcely come under the definition, although they certainly, work— what mother does not? Is a " doctor or a professor-a worker ? They would certainly contend that they were.. The system in Auckland is that workmen's conoeso sion tickets - are , issued between 6 and -8 ■ o'clock in the morning, available for return • in the evening, but it is not' proposed to . ;, make any alterations in the local arrange- :t-; ments. If a man says he is a worker, the : conductor cannot turn him off, arid so tho •' • weary clerk will be able to board any car in sight. The matter seems to have given trouble in London, where'the tramway authorities pro- • posed to run special cars for women. The " London. Municipal. Journal" has the follow- , ing on the subject:—".The experiment which the London County Council started on one of its sections last February of reserving a special early morning tramcar for women'only has had to bo discontinued. The discontinu-ance-of the experiment has come about by ' ; some of the male travellers having refused to recognise the right of the council to make : any such arrangement. The opinion of. the ' Commissioner of Police was sought on the matter, and tho decision of that official is to the effect that the County Council- has legally no power to_ reserve special cars for anybody, and that its officers cannot forbid anyone ' using, any public conveyance in-which . there is room.' Without legislation, apparently, there soems to be little possibility of •• the 'London County Council granting concessions to women." ;