§ MR. MACKARNESS (Berkshire, Newbury)To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his attention has been called to the growing practice on the part of drivers of motor 1683 vehicles of discharging volumes of oil-smoke from the exhaust pipes of the cars, to the great inconvenience of the general public; whether the police have had any instructions issued to them for dealing with this nuisance; and who is responsible for those instructions being carried out.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Gladstone.) I can only answer for the Metropolitan police district, and I do not think this evil is increasing there, at any rate in proportion to the greatly increased number of motor vehicles now on the streets. With regard to motor cars, when the emission of smoke is due to any temporary or accidental cause, which I believe is almost invariably the case, the police have no power to take any action. As regards motor cabs and motor omnibuses, it is a condition of their licensing in London that "the lubrication of the engine or the carburation of the working mixture must be so controlled that smoke is not projected with the exhaust, or from any other part." A large number of vehicles have been, and are being, dealt with under this rule, and ordered off the streets till their defects are remedied.