MOTOR-SERVICE CASE

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 1, 23 March 1927, Page 16

MOTOR-SERVICE CASE

LIABILITY OF OWNERS BY-LAWS NOT ABROGATED. tfFrom Our Oum Correspondent.) STRATFORD, To-day. A special case of great importance to motor service-car owners throughout the Dominion has been finally decided by Mr. R. W. Tate, S.M. Recently the Stratford Borough Council preferred a charge against Hodson’B Pioneer Motor-Service Co., of Wanganui, for a breach of the by-laws in that they plied for hire within the borough without being duly licensed. The offence was admitted, but defendants claimed that under the licence issued by the Wanganui City Council, In which city the car was garaged, and under the provisions of the heavy traffic service was entitled to run on a their service was entitled to run on a fixed time-table between any two towns and over any roads in New Zealand, provided the limitation of passengers set out in the licence was observed. Defendants also claimed that the bylaw under which the information was laid was abrogated by the Motor-Lorry Regulations, of 1925. The magistrate maintained that proprietors of service-cars were liable for plying for hire within the various boroughs for which the service was conducted. The regulations did not tend to abrogate the by-laws of the local authority except in so far as they substituted a universal system for the control of heavy traffic. Defendants were convicted and fined 10s with costs, £1 11s.