FURTHER SUPPORT.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 289, 6 December 1928, Page 25

FURTHER SUPPORT.

TAGGING MOTORISTS SYSTEM. MR. F. K. HUNT, S.M., SUGGESTS A CHANGE.

Further emphatic support of the suggested system of fining motorists for trivial offences by tagging their cars and demanding them to report to the Traffic Department, was given by Mr. F. K. Hunt, S.M., yesterday morning. "There is far too much time -wasted by the Courts with these small cases," said Mr. Hunt. "There is no doubt that some system will have to be introduced which will cut out the Court. These tail light and parking offences could easily be dealt with in a far more expeditious manner. Of course, the Act will have to be amended, but that can easily be done, and the sooner the better," stated Mr. Hunt. "Another thing, I think these Court fees should be reduced in the cases of smaller claims. The minimum now is 5/ and the maximum 35/. Well, the scale is far too high. It hits the little man pretty hard. The man with the small claim of £4 or £5 has to pay costs which are too big," said Mr. Hunt. It was in December, 19*20, that the Court fees were raised. Previously the. fees were 3/ up to £5, 5/ up to £10, 8/ up to £20, 10/ up to £50 and 15/ up to £150. That was when the biggest claim that could be made in the Lower Court was £200. Now the scale of fees is 5/ for £5, 10/ for £10, 15/ for £20, 20/ for £50, 30/ for £100 to £150 and 35/ for anything over £150. It is thought that with, the volume of summonses, the fees should be reduced to the old limits. There would be over 16,000 summonses in Auckland for the year, at an average cost of about 15/, which worked out at £1200. Mr. Hunt said that for email claims, somewhere about 5 per cent of the claim would be fair costs.