Legal Profession's Support for an Amendment
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I NOTE that your correspondent, Mr. Stanley E. Pitts, "frequently appears for applicants (and occasionally for objectors) in a Licensing Authority's court . . ." Might I suggest that in order to avoid "a wrong sense of proportion" he should confine his future activities to either one or the other. I know of nothing more fatiguing and destructive of one's sense of proportion than the attempt to run with the hare and hunt with the hounds.
The legal profession shares with that of the doctor and the undertaker the equivocal distinction of reaping n40
the richest harvest when there is a plentiful sowing of trouble. it speaks highly, therefore, for the first-named honourable profession that so many solicitors and barristers have been eager to come forward to support our demand for an amendment of Section 11.
Obviously a reduction in the number of objections under this section must inevitably reduce the opportunities for legal work in the Traffic Courts. Mr. Pitts, apparently, would have more and more objections, as is evinced by the remarks towards the end of his letter :—
"There are numerous hauliers operating in this country who continually complain of the methods of operation of other operators. It is well known that many of these complaining operators do not object to the hauliers of whom they complain because of the attitude towards railway opposition, which attitude is, in my view, wrongly inflamed by unbalanced writing such as that of A.D.-J.' "
Is there any need to say anything further?
London, E.C.1. A.D.-J.
A HAULIER OF 18 YEARS' EXPERIENCE HAS TO PROVE " NEED "1 Q PEAKING as one who has been an operator since
1918. I agree with The Commercial Motor that Section 11 (2) of the 1933 Act requires amendment. Objections should not be entertained to applications for renewals by established hauliers. Objections should be
admitted only when an increase in tonnage is sought, or when application is made by a newcomer.
Since 1918 I have been carrying goods from farms to mills in my district, and when I applied for the renewal of my B licence a railway company, as usual, objected, despite the fact that the company had never carried out this work and, indeed, had no vehicle to do it. Nevertheless, an operator in my position is told that he cannot have a licence unless he can prove the need for his services.
Ask the farmer whether motor vehicles are needed to carry his wheat ! They have been invaluable to him. Let the railways put their own house in order. Hauliers can look after themselves. We should be granted licences without all this red tape and interference. Road transport is out to serve the public and needs no Government assistance, as do the railways. All we require is
fair play. AGRICULTURAL HAULIER. Royston.