§ Mr. R. YOUNGasked the Home Secretary whether owners of taxi-cabs and other motor vehicles are taking advantage of the telephone facilities to evade the bye-laws of local authorities by accepting orders for hire only at their garages, with the result that instead of the scale of charges fixed by the local authority greater charges are made, some of them exorbitant, and whether he will consider the advisability of amending the Town Police Clauses Act., 1847, which is incorporated with the Public Health Act, 1875, so as to provide that all hired vehicles be subject to the provisions of the bye-laws with respect to hackney carriages and omnibuses made by local authorities?
§ Dr. ADDISONI have been asked to reply to this question. The scheme of the Statutes mentioned is that bye-laws fixing the faros of hackney carriages shall fix fares for those vehicles only which ply for hire in the streets, and I have no evidence of any general desire among local authorities to extend their control in this particular to vehicles hired by private arrangement.