The above rate to be materially increased, if a person is going in a hurry to a railway, or is returning home late at night, and also on all special occasions, such as Queen's Birthdays, Easter and Whitsun Mondays, Horticultural and Botanical Fête days, and all illumination nights, and likewise at all times when it should happen to be hailing, snowing, or raining.
In the event of a dispute as to distance, the ground to be measured at the expense of the person disputing the Cabman's word, and a sum of two pounds to be paid into Court as a guarantee of the result thereof.
Clause the Thirteenth enacts that, in all matters of dispute, whether the Cabman shall be proved to be right or wrong, he is to be paid his expenses, and a certain sum, not less than five shillings, for his loss of time.
Every person, beyond two, to be charged at the rate of a separate fare.
Luggage to be charged according to weight, at the same rates demanded by the Parcels' Delivery Company.
Back Fare to be paid on all occasions, and to be doubled after twelve o'clock.
By the next Clause it is enacted, that ladies are to be charged one-half as much again as gentlemen (this clause has been objected to as being rather stringent, and oppressively severe, but when it is considered the trouble that ladies give, and how they always object to pay what a Cabman asks of them, and how they always keep the Cabman waiting, with their useless arguments and frivolous complaints, it is but right that the Cabman should be protected against all such contigencies, and be allowed something extra for his unfeeling waste of time).
Babies, if taken, to be charged each as a separate fare, or else weighed as luggage, according to the option of the Cabman.
In no case is the fare to have the power of appeal against the Magistrate's decision.
There are several minor clauses, but we think we have shown enough of the New Cab Act to prove that if only one-half of it is carried out, we shall have not only the Cabmen better protected, but also a better and more respectable class of riders in cabs.