AN INTERESTING CASE.

Gisborne Times, Volume X, Issue 965, 11 August 1903, Page 2

AN INTERESTING CASE.

By Telegraph—Press Association. Christchurch, last night. R. Pitcaithley and Co., owners of the coastal steamer John Anderson, trading between Lyttelton and bays of the Banks Peninsular, were sued by John R. Thaoker for £25 to-day as damages for refusing to take him to Okains Bay, and for unlawfully setting him ashore again at Lyttelton. The statement for plaintiff was that the captaiD, acting on instructions, had demanded £1 for a passage to Okains Bay, while others on the same trip had been charged ss. Plaintiff refused to pay, and the steamer was turned back, and he was set ashore. The question was whether defendants were common carriers; or private carriers; whether they had right to refiise a passage to a respeotable person able to pay for it, and whether they were entitled to charge an unreasonable fare. The defence was that the scale of farps had been raised before the occurrence. No one had actually been required to pay the increased fare, but the ship master had been instructed to give concessions even to a passago for nothing to those persons who sent their produce .as oargo in the firm’s vessels. The firm 'claimed the legal right to discriminate as to who should be required tq pay the full amount of the fare. Mr Haseiden, S.M., reserved judgment.