CAB REGULATIONS.—OBSERVATIONS. (Hansard, 5 May 1871)

§ MR. CAVENDISH BENTINCK

, in rising to call attention to the increase of hackney carriage fares under the Regulations dated 10th March last, said, that on last Tuesday week a most extraordinary circumstance occurred. On that occasion he had a Notice on the Paper similar to the present one, with a view to put some questions to the Home Secretary on the subject of the recent cab regulations. He had virtually concluded his statement, when a supporter of Her Majesty's Government, a Member for a small village in Ireland, where not only were there no hackney carriages, but the accommodation of an outside car could hardly be procured, moved that the House be counted. The principle of "counting" was a very useful one, but the right, like every other right, ought to be exercised with judgment, for nothing could be more inconvenient than that when a Member had concluded his statement, the House should be counted out so as to preclude the Minister from making an answer. He knew that the right hon. Gentleman the Home Secretary was very much annoyed at what had been done on the occasion to which he referred. However, he would not go over the subject again, but would merely recapitulate the objections which he had urged before. His first objection was, that the Hackney Carriage Regulations had been suddenly issued on the 10th of March last without any notice to the public; and he ventured to suggest that it would be very easy for the authorities to give the same publicity to those regulations which they did now to regulations respecting Her Majesty's Drawing Room and other public ceremonials. His second objection was that, having regard to the remission of taxation on hackney carriages, it was not proper that the fares should be increased, and he noticed particularly the case of a two-wheeled vehicle being allowed to charge 8d. for a quarter of an hour's delay, observing on the inconvenience of it on the ground that 8d. was "broken money." His third objection was, that a hack cab was allowed to charge a shilling fare. For instance, if a carriage was hired at Charing Cross, for a distance just beyond the four-mile circle, the fare would be only 3s.; but if a person hired the carriage on the return 331 journey, he would have to pay a charge of 5s. His last objection was, that the driver of a hackney cab was allowed to charge 2d. for every parcel outside, even when there was only one traveller. He suggested that such a charge should not be allowed, except when, at least, two persons were inside. There were two or three other points to which he wished to call attention. He thought it would be a very easy and inexpensive matter for the Home Office or the Board of Works to measure the distances along the principal thoroughfares, and place a record every half-mile on sign-posts or the lampposts for the guidance of the public. A similar plan was found to succeed at the Kensington Museum. It was also important that legible fare-boards should be placed on the stands and in the stations; and he thought it was singular that there were none of these boards in the City. Probably few hon. Members had ever seen the tickets which cab-drivers were required to carry with them; but the one which he had in his hand would show that they were of a substantial character and almost as large as the driver's plate. He could not understand how the right hon. Gentleman could expect a hackney coach driver to have with him a sufficient number for his passengers, and thought it would be better to substitute the smaller ticket formerly used in France. The hon. Member for Windsor had intimated a few days ago that he was about to move for a Committee to inquire into the police system, and he (Mr. C. Bentinck) would suggest that such a Committee would afford a convenient opportunity for instituting an inquiry as to the cab regulations in the Metropolis.

MR. BRUCE

said, he was obliged to the hon. Member for Whitehaven for giving him this opportunity of answering the charge which had been made, and of removing a great many misapprehensions on the subject of cab legislation. The hon. Gentleman complained that the recent regulations had not been made sufficiently public, and suggested that they should be made known in the same manner as the regulations whenever Her Majesty held a Drawing Boom; but the regulations extended over so large a space and were so voluminous that hardly anybody would read them. Some 3,000 copies, however, had been sent to the persons most interested; and notice had 332 been given that every cabman must produce a table of distances, with which was a copy of the regulations, and, moreover, every cab carried a large place on which the points of the greatest interest were indicated. Much unjust criticism had been passed upon him with respect to cab legislation. He would remind the House of what was the previous legislation on the subject. In 1854 the payment for cabs was 8d. per mile, when Mr. Fitzroy, the Under Secretary for the Home Department, brought in a Bill which introduced the fare of 6d. Thus, while cabs bore an exceptional rate, they were allowed to charge a lower fare than cabs in other towns. In Liverpool, under the free trade system, the charge had subsided into 1s. per mile; and in Leeds the civic authorities had raised the fare to that amount from 9d. In Manchester, the fare was 9d. per mile; in Birmingham, 8d.; and in Bristol, 1s. The Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1869, brought in a measure which relieved the metropolitan cab proprietors from a very heavy duty, and at present all charges amounted to £4 17s. 6d.; so that they were better off by £14 13s. 6d. About the same time he (Mr. Bruce) brought in a Bill to provide for the cost of inspection, and under that measure his strict duty would simply have been, with the assistance of the Chief Commissioner of Police, to have secured for the public the benefit of a thorough inspection of cabs, which up to that time had been defrayed by the Treasury. Accordingly, he (Mr. Bruce) brought in a Bill to levy on each cab a charge which would cover the cost of inspection. But he thought the introduction of that measure was a fitting occasion to secure to the public a better vehicle than the four-wheeled cab, which, although it was useful, did not supply all the wants of the public. With that view he proposed that cab proprietors should be allowed to charge what they chose for the use of their cabs; that the system of free trade should be extended to them. No practical use was made of that privilege. It had been said that the reason was that the cab proprietors were not sufficiently consulted. That was not the fact. The cab proprietors were taken into counsel; the objects of the Government were fully explained to them, and every encouragement was given to them to provide a better vehicle. After a very short time they adopted a uniform charge. 333 The free-trade system was tried for a twelvemonth, and had failed. Meantime, he and the Chief Commissioner had done all they could under the circumstances to take the greatest care of the public by insisting that the vehicles should be in better order than before. They could not at once sweep away 7,000 cabs; but, within the last year, they had made no less than 1,537 cabs and 1,337 cab horses disappear. The Hansoms were better now than they had been in any former period, and a better sort of four-wheel cab had replaced the rattletraps that used to exist. It was true the Hansoms had been allowed to make an extra charge; but he thought the improvement manifested by that description of cab would entirely account for it. The fare when outside the four-mile circle was allowed to the cabmen as some recompense for the loss that did not accrue when he plied for hire nearer the centre of the Metropolis; and, to prevent the continual disputes that occurred about luggage, it was thought better to fix the charge at 2d. on every article carried outside the cab. With reference to lamps, he had not thought it necessary to interfere, as last year only 11 persons were killed by cabs, and 86 were killed by all other kinds of vehicles; so he thought that to enforce lamps on cabs and not on other vehicles would be very unjust to the cabmen, and very little public good would come of it. When the now Metropolis Act was passed, which he hoped would not be long, it would be very desirable to transfer the Secretary of State's power over cabs to the local authorities; and with regard to all other matters he would at once communicate with the police in reference to them.