Licensing of Vehicles.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 7873, 15 July 1905, Page 2

Licensing of Vehicles.

nOHOUGH NO AUTHORITY BE- | VON1) BOUNDARIES, i

An important point in regard t.i the lic>n.'iiiiu "f vehicles -.vhs decided by Mr T. Hutchison, S.M.. ou Kriday in his -reserved judgment in the c-ise in which tho Roi-ough luspectoi proceeded against It.iber't White, drivei- of the Opuiutke coach, under the licensing by-law.

Mr Ijiiillimi) upiN-'unxl < n Whaif uf the l!(iro»gh Couiicil unci Mr Itoy lor t-ie riufaiidiiiu. Tho S..M. s»i(l Hint till! ilefcndai.t |V.-as u c iiiinioii carrier for hire. The

coach was licensed in i.he. Taramiki i County, through whicli its route lies, I but was not lionised i-i the Horough , of New I'lyniomh, whence it departs i and whither it returns. T3ie infortnution chargid >h<> aefeiuhnji with wni lawfully pljimr for hire between a | placv witlvin the borough and a place ] place outside the borough, and the <;ue-:tifm was raised whether the coach ought, not to be licensed in the borough as well as iu the colinty. llylaw 100, on which the J!or<oiigj.i Council proceeded, was, in fact, inn'k \mf!er the existing Municipal Cor.ioi'aliais Act, 19(10, and it,s am'iidinenls. This Act did iv.»t tnmicraie. with the particularity of the repealed Act of 1986 the different matters in respect of winch thv Council is empowered to make, bylaws, and in especial' it did not Contain any specific provision at all on the snl.Jo.ct ol licensing vehicles. The Magistrate thought, however, that the givt-'i'al powers to make by-laws were sufhVjcnt for the purpose. These powers, hawover, could nut extend, the S.M. thought, to enable the making of a by-law for the purpose cf licensing vehicles to ply outside borough limits ; and in the absence of any specific power for the purpose it seemed to him that the. bylaw in question, so far us it purported to liiyenso vehicles to ply beyond the borough, was ultra vires. The oiily sjiocific provision no far ns he could see bearing apon the point was section ■IK") (, r >). Hut that subsection, which enacts that, n vehicle license taken ou.t 1n a boroii}«h shall suffice w thin live miles therefrom did not, it seemed to til in, empower '.ho onunril of a borough to issue n iicen.se in terms' to ply beyond the bo.-ough limits. It only annexed to a license to ply within the Worough an additional capafcity under certain circumstances. He said "under certain circumstances" because the proviso to the subsection, which was i» different terms from the corresimnding proviso in the ) epieulerl Act of IKSfI, undo it protable that the live miles ratlins only applied where tfote parts traversed ale ulso a borough ■>r boroughs, so that, so far as Xcw Plymouth is con ; .vrned, there being :io' nth.-r l-.roegh w t,"',in live miles of its limits, the sub-section hus no applie tio\ i. The S.M. was therefore forced to the conclusion ihivt lly-law 1(H), in -o far as it purported to authorise lhe issue of n license to ply outside the l-ii»--i- s of the borough was ultra vires, and as th? information was ,'ramed upon that part of the bylaw it followed that it must be dismis:ed This did not involve a ron'lemnntinn of the whole of the bylaw because, in bis opinion, the part here held to be bad is separable from (If remainder : but, again it was u |i'e<Li'on whether on the facts in the present case, the information chnvging ihe plying for hire "wholly within the borough" could KucceJl. Apiirt ii-om the by.law, the S.M. s ;l id Ke had come to the conclusion thiit itherj was a plying for h re wjithin the borough. The information was '.lismis i.<l with costs.