Metropolitan Public Carriage Act 1869
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
Metropolitan Public Carriage Act, 1869
(32 & 33 Vict.) CHAP. 115.
An Act for amending the Law relating to Hackney and Stage Carriages within the Metropolitan Police District.
[11th August 1869]
Whereas it is expedient to amend the law relating to hackney and stage carriages within the metropolitan police district:
Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
1 Short title.
1. This Act may be cited for all purposes as ‘TheMetropolitan Public Carriage Act, 1869.’
2 Limits of Act.
2. The limits of this Act shall be the metropolitan police district, and the city of London and the liberties thereof.
3 Commencement of Act.
3. This Act shall not come into operation till the first of January one thousand eight hundred and seventy.
4 Definition of stage carriage and hackney carriage.
4. In this Act ‘stage carriage’ shall mean any carriage for the conveyance of passengers which plies for hire in any public street, road, or place within the limits of this Act, and in which the passengers or any of them are charged to pay separate and distinct or at the rate of separate and distinct fares for their respective places or seats therein.
‘Hackney carriage’ shall mean any carriage for the conveyance of passengers which plies for hire within the limits of this Act, and is not a stage carriage.
‘Prescribed’ shall mean ‘prescribed by order of one of Her Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State.’
5 Exemption of certain carriages from operations of Act.
5. A ‘stage carriage’ which on every journey goes to or comes from some town or place beyond the limits of this Act shall not be deemed to be a carriage plying within the limits of this Act.
Licensing Hackney and Stage Carriages.
6 Grant of hackney carriage licences.
6. One of Her Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State may from time to time license to ply for hire within the limits of this Act hackney and stage carriages, to be distinguished in such manner as he may by order prescribe.
Any licence in respect of a hackney or stage carriage under this section may be granted at such price, on such conditions, be in such form, be subject to revision or suspension in such events, and generally be dealt with in such manner as the said Secretary of State may by order prescribe, subject as follows:
(1) (1.) That a hackney or stage carriage licence shall, if not revoked or suspended, be in force for one year, and there shall be paid in respect thereof to the Receiver of the Metropolitan Police, to be carried to the account of the Metropolitan Police Fund, such uniform sum, not exceeding two pounds two shillings, as the said Secretary of State may prescribe.
(2) (2.) That in any such order provision shall be made for the transfer of a hackney or stage carriage licence to the widow or to any child of full age of any person to whom a hackney or stage carriage licence has been granted who may die during the continuance of such licence leaving a widow or child of full age, and also for the transfer of a hackney or stage carriage licence to the husband of any woman to whom such licence has been granted and who marries during the continuance thereof.
7 Penalty on use of unlicensed carriage.
7. If any unlicensed hackney or stage carriage plies for hire, the owner of such carriage shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding five pounds for every day during which such unlicensed carriage plies. And if any unlicensed hackney carriage is found on any stand within the limits of this Act, the owner of such carriage shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding five pounds for each time it is so found. The driver also shall in every such case be liable to a like penalty unless he proves that he was ignorant of the fact of the carriage being an unlicensed carriage.
Any hackney or stage carriage plying for hire, and any hackney carriage found on any stand without having such distinguishing mark, or being otherwise distinguished in such manner as may for the time being be prescribed by the said Secretary of State, shall be deemed to be an unlicensed carriage.
Licensing Drivers of Hackney and Stage, Carriages.
8 Hackney carriage to be driven by licensed drivers.
8. No hackney carriage shall ply for hire within the limits of this Act unless under the charge of a driver having a licence from the said Secretary of State, and no stage carriage shall ply for hire within the limits of this Act unless the conductor and driver of such carriage have respectively licences from the said Secretary of State. If any hackney or stage carriage plies for hire in contravention of this section, the person driving the same, and also the owner of such carriage, unless he proves, in the case of a hackney carriage, that the driver, and in the case of a stage carriage, that the conductor or driver, as the case may require, acted without his privity or consent, shall respectively be liable to a penalty not exceeding forty shillings.
A licence to the driver or conductor of a hackney or stage carriage may be granted at such price, on such conditions, be in such form, be subject to revocation or suspension in such events, and generally be dealt with in such manner as the said Secretary of State may by order prescribe, subject to this provision, that any such licence shall, if not revoked or suspended, be in force for one year, and there shall be paid in respect thereof to the Receiver of the Metropolitan Police, to be carried to the account of the Metropolitan Police Fund, such sum not exceeding five shillings as the said Secretary of State may prescribe. This clause shall not repeal the tenth section of an Act of...
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