MR. DAWSONsaid, he would beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether, in the absence of any present limitation of Fares demanded by Conductors of Omnibuses in the Metropolis, it would not be desirable to place these public conveyances under the same regulations as Hackney Carriages; and, whether the Government would undertake legislation with that object?
§ SIR GEORGE GREYsaid, it was impossible to adopt the same regulations with regard to rates and fares of omnibuses as were applied to Hackney Carriages. Omnibuses came under the general description of stage carriages that ran from one fixed point to another, picking up passengers along the route, and it was not possible to fix any general table of rates which could be applicable to them. There was, however, this regulation: that Conductors could only demand the rate (which must be uniform for all passengers) between certain distances, which was conspicuously painted within the omnibus, so that passengers on the journey might see the fare which the Conductor was entitled to demand.
§ MR. DARBY GRIFFITHsaid, he wished to ask if omnibus proprietors could not be compelled to paint the table of fares outside the omnibuses as well as inside?
§ SIR GEORGE GREYsaid, the law required that a table of fares should be conspicuously painted within the omnibus, the object being that passengers while sitting in the omnibus should have an opportunity of seeing the precise sum that could be demanded from them, and no more could be demanded than was placed on the table.
§ MR. DARBY GRIFFITHsaid, he wanted to know whether the fares should not be put outside the omnibus, so that people might see them before they got in?
§ SIR GEORGE GREYreplied, that he had stated what the law actually was.