THE TRAMWAY AND THE CABMEN.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 2121, 10 December 1880, Page 2

THE TRAMWAY AND THE CABMEN.

The dispute between the Tramway Company and the cabmen came to a somewhat nnexpected conclusion yesterday in the District Court. This was brought about by discovering that the cabstand, which has formed the casus belli between the cabmen and the Tramway Company, and also, to some extent at least, the City Council, is not where it ought to be. According to the evidence of the professional witness, which was not disputed, the curve or deviation in the tramway, about which so much has been said, would have cleared the cabstand had it been in its proper place. Of course no one was aware of this fact, and the cabmen all along acted perfectly bona fide in the maintenance of what they considered was their right. And although subsequent events have not shaken the innate justice of their cause when first taken up, it is evident that the new discovery has placed them in the wrong, looking at the affair from a strictly legal point of view. The Tramway Company have proved their right to cut through what should have in reality been no cabstand at all, but the main question—to which, after all, this question of deviation is subsidiary—was whether the company were to be allowed to monopolise the side walk in front of the Station to the exclusion of the public. This point was not touched by the decision yesterday, and therefore we shall watch with some interest the working of tho plan proposed by the Tramway Company, and accepted by the Council, for the standing places at the Station. fA month's trial is to take place, and it is to be hoped that the Committee will carefully note the result. Thero is just one other point to which we desire to refer, and that is the necessity which exists for the carrying into effect as speedily as possible of the powers of the Council under the Tramway Act with reference to licensing the cars, drivers, &c, and inspecting tho vehicles in a similar manner to others holding licenses from the city. As we have pointed out over and over again, it is decidedly unfair to the cabmen to compel them, ere they can put a cab on the streets, to pay a license fee and come under regulations, whilst a most powerful opponent to them is allowed to go scot free. Besides, in the interests of the public, it is necessary that the City Council should exercise powers of supervision over both the traffic and the officers. It may be—we do not say it is—greatly to the safety and comfort of passengers by the tramway that these should be carried out. There is now no reason why there should be any further delay. Above all, we trust that the Council will never consent to the request of the Tramway Company to hand over their powers of licensing, and consequent supervision, to the company itself. This would never work, and it is more than probable that the Council would find gravo complaints arising. Let them at once carry out the provisions of tho Act as regards licensing, &c. They have appointed standing places, the licensing ought to follow as a matter of course.