"A CITY NUISANCE."

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1791, 2 July 1913, Page 7

"A CITY NUISANCE."

; TELEPHONES IN THE STREETS. The control of private telephones on taxicab ranlcs in the city. was the subject on which a deputation of the By-Laws Committee of the City Council addressed the Postmaster-General (the lion. R. H. Rhodes) yesterday. Mr. W. H. P. Barber. chairman of the committee, explained' that the existence of a number of private telephones on the different taxioab ranks was developing into a city nuisance, and the council desired to regulate the telephones in some way. They did not wish to deny taxidrivers the convenience of the use 'of a telephone, but the committee thought there should bo only one telephone, subscribed j for by the city, on each stand. On one stand now there were five telephones, and the result was a crowding of - this stand, with a greater number of vehicles than there was space for, and a consequent blocking of traffic. _ Mr. W. H. Morton (City Engineer) said that ?n the . Featlverston Street stand, where provision was made for ten vehicles, there w.)re often as many as twenty, and traffic iras impeded. Owing to several taxicab 'proprietors having private .telephones on this stand, the drivers of their vehicles were most unwilling to leave it to go to another istand. What he proposed was that there should be a telephone, paid for by the city, on ovary stand, and that every licensed driver should be required to pay a little additional for his license, wliicli would entitle him to use the telephone on any stand. At present there \ra-o so many telephones on this one stand that the counail couid not possibly nllow any more to t>3 put there, and those drivers who had no right to use the. private telephones already there felt aggrieved. Under the proposed ne w system the drivers could, if . they chose, put a man in chargo of the telephone, and if any driver misappropriated a call he could m dealt with by the council. Mr. Rhodis, in reply, said he quite understood that the congestion of cabs on one stand was a. nuisance, and that tne city must regulate the traffic on tne streets. The telephones, too,'were not very sightly as thoy were at Present erected. < He would try to work with the City Council in the matter, but ho could not, of course, break his agreement with, the drivers who were now telephone subscriberfljarber explained that, the deputation did not ask that the telephones be withdrawn at once, but that no renewals said he would look into the matter and see how far he could go to meet the City Council. He supposed the City Council would see that the telephones would be properly housed in suitable boxes. , Mr. Barber said he would undertake to Hay that this would I>9 done.