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the Licensee shall not exceed the fares specified
in Schedule B hereto, or such substituted, altered,
amended, increased, modified or additional fares as
may from time to time and for the time being be
fixed and prescribed by the Governor in Council:
Provided that, without the consent of the Licensee,
no change shall be made in the maximum fares itemised
in the said Schedule B during the first three years
of the said period of fifteen years; thereafter the
fares to be demanded and taken shall be the current
fares fixed and prescribed by the Governor in
Council, regard being had as well to the Licensee
as to the general public.
Alterations and extensions to routes are contemplated by
paragraph 8 of the tender (Appendix G) and condition 6 of
the licence (Appendix H).
In view of this it is difficult to understand
what is meant by "defined commitments" and "specified
fares" in paragraph 38 of the petition.
I am advised that there is nothing in the
terms of the licence to support the petitioner in his
complaint against the introduction of second class fares
where they did not exist before and the extension of
certain routes.
10.
The only grounds on which the petitioner's
complaint might be supported are that the Hong Kong
Tramways is being subjected to "unfair and wasteful competition"
(paragraph 48). But although the minimum fare charged by the Tramways viz: five cents (at present equal to a penny
and a third) represents the maximum third class fare
permitted by the Tramway Ordinance, there has been no
attempt by the Bus Company to under-cut the Tramways
Company. It is the Tramways Company that in its petition
raises