Untitled

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18151, 14 August 1924, Page 9

ficials would not be appointed, but the services of a'Government department already in, existence retained for .the purpose. If this was the Government s object, why did it not say so? With regard to the licensing of individuals, h- considered that some injustice _ was done to municipalities. Provision should have been made m the Bill to allow of the licensing of individuals by the police, and had the benefits of the Highways Act been' universal to ail local bodies and not with just thei exception of municipalities, it would have left the way open here to have made proper provision for the .licensing of individuals by the police. That was to say, had all local bodies been given universal benefits under the Highways Act, they would not have minded the small loss of revenue taken away by the licensing of individuals by, the police. It was the failure of the (government to give municipalities some benefit under the Bill which was now working against real refonji urfSer ~the Motor Vehicles Bill. If the municipalities objected to the loss of revenue by the licensing by the police, they were perfectly right in doing so To ins mind, the Motor Vehicles Bill, so far as the control of individuals was concerned, would be a failure on this account. He considered that it was fitting that the' police should have the power of licensing individuals, because after all they had to deal with the administration of the law. asked his "opinion on the of scale charges on licensing vehicles. Mr Johnston said that in his opinion these would not be objected to, except by motor-lorry owners. scheme should be devised, whereuv there should be an equitable divisiontot tees obtained by all local bodies. ''The present rotten system," he stated, leaves local bodies to deal with the feeacollected as a purely domestic matter. Quick, cheap transport is the foundation of prosperity in New Zealand, and there will always be friction and disability to the detriment of the country till some comprehensive scheme is evolved in this direction. "With regard to heavy motor traffic, there shoxi« be two sets of licenses—one for the North and one for the South because motor-lorries are not often tasen from one island to the other. The trouble is that there is no person on the Government side who possesses imagination and intuition enough to deal with this matter, and they are all too conservative to take hints from peojle who are not politicians." "As far as I can see the proposals of the new Bill are reasonable,"' said Mr P. R.'Harman, secretary of the South Island Motor Union. "The scale of charges is practically what we agreed upon." A suggestion is made by Mr Frank Thompson, general manager of the tramways, which seems worthv of consideration. Mr Thompson told a reporter yesterdav that he thoueht thnt the Bill should include provision for the enforcement of a third party insurance by car owners. His reason for the suggestion was, he said, that in the event of a car owner, with practicallv no funds beyond the interest he has in his car, bv negligent driving killing a working man, the workine-man's wife and family would be unable to obtain any financial redress: if car owners were compelled to insure, there would be, at l<*ast, something for the man's dependents.

A DUNEDIN CONFERENCE. (SPKCIAL TO "XHX PBZ9S.") DT7NEDIN, August 13. In consequence of the unnstial number of motor fatalities of late, the Otago Motor, Club has appointed delegates to meet the City Council and police in conference for the purpose of discussing the by-laws and ether matters with a view to the more efficient control of all vehicular traffic.