37: The commissioners may from time to time licence to ply for hire within the prescribed distance, or if no distance is prescribed, within 5 miles from the General Post Office of the city, town, or place to which the special Act refers, (which in that case shall be deemed the prescribed distance,) . . . hackney coaches, or carriages of any kind or description adapted to the carriage of persons.

38. Every wheeled carriage, whatever may be its form or construction, used in standing or plying for hire in any street within the prescribed distance, having thereon any numbered plate required by this or the special Act to be fixed upon a hackney carriage, or having thereon any plate resembling or intended to resemble any such plate as aforesaid, shall be deemed to be a hackney carriage within the meaning of this Act; and in all proceedings at law or otherwise the term 'hackney carriage' shall be sufficient to describe any such carriage: Provided always, that no stagecoach used for the purpose of standing or plying for passengers to be carried for hire at separate fares, and duly licensed for that purpose, and having thereon the proper numbered plates required by law to be placed on such stagecoaches, shall be deemed to be a hackney carriage within the meaning of this Act.