MANY MORE MOTORISTS

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22591, 22 December 1938, Page 8

MANY MORE MOTORISTS

NEW HIGH LEVEE REACHED

RECORD RUSH FOR LICENCES

TOTAL ALREADY ABOVE THAT FOR LAST YEAR

Officers of the Christchurch City Council's traffic department are having the busiest Christmas period on record, attending to applicants for drivers' licences. There has been an unprecedented rush for the services of testing inspectors, and for many days now three of them have been on duty doing nothing else but putting prospective drivers through their paces. So far this month 252 applicants have been put through, a higher figure than for any previous December.

Not only is the Christmas figure of applicants a new record, but the grand totals for the year will exceed by many hundreds the previous highest figure for the city. The total number of licences issued up to December 31 last year was 15,033: so far this year the figure has reached 16,647, and is already far in excess of the total number of licences issued for the whole of last year (16,005). As there are still four months of the current year to go, it is certain that the total this year will set an easy new record level. The testing inspectors are booked up with applications until January 11. Many of the applicants have had to wait some time for their tests, but the department has been dealing with all urgent and necessary applications, such as those where the licences are urgently desired for business reasons. Comment was made yesterday by the Chief Traffic Inspector, Mr J. Bruorton, on the fact that although ample warning was given to prospective drivers to apply early for dates for their tests, so many had left it until the last moment.

Boom in The Trade

The great increase in the number of city drivers is considered to be an indication of the way in which the people of the Dominion have taken to the roads again after the depression. Motor traders have had high sales records, it is stated, and many of the recent applications for licences have been from the owners of new cars and new owners with their first cars. The number of applications for trade vehicles, too, is increasing rapidly. Many of the applicants in the present Christmas rush for licences are from young people who intend to go on holiday with their parents and share in the driving. Others are from overseas applicants who arrive in the city and decide to hire a car to tour the South Island. This is being done extensively this season, and two of the applications now being dealt with are from Australians who intend to do a deal of touring. Other visitors from New Zealand cities here for the Christmas holidays take out licences for driving round the city.