PECULIAR CASE

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 326, 13 September 1932, Page 3

PECULIAR CASE

TAXI CANNOT BE DRIYEN AS A PRIVATE VEHICLE. INTERESTING DECISION. An interestnig discussion took place in the New Plymouth Police Court on Wednesday last iiF a case in which Basil Robert Blaekhall was charged with driving a public motor-car for which he had not, by license, the necessary qualification. The question was as to whetber a taxi car, when used for private purposes, could be driven by a person not holding the medical certificate of fitness required in the case of drivers of publie vehicles. The fact of the defendant having driven the car on thie occasion in question was not in dispute, nor was the question of the car being a licensed taxi car challenged. The point made on behalf of the defendant was that at the time of the alleged offence he had driven the car without holding the appropriate license, including a medical certificate, but that as the car was then being used for private purposes, for which no payment was received the condition as to the medical certificate did not apply. The magistrate held that a taxi car could not become a private car in that manner. Ilt was licensed as a public vehicle, and it carried a registration number plate with the intitial "T" on it which proclaimed to the world that it was a taxi and therefore a public yehicle7 and the only person, who could

drive a public vehicle was a person holding the appropriate license, which also meant that he had to have a certificate of medical fitness. In this instance the defendant had not at that time the certificate required, and he therefore must be convicted. A fine of 20s (costs 10s) was imposed.