Many Driving Licences Still To Be Renewed

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30482, 2 July 1964, Page 19

Many Driving Licences Still To Be Renewed

There are still more than 9000 drivers in Christchurch with no licence. When the old licences expired on June 30 only 27,551 of the 38,633 licences due to be renewed had been dealt with, and yesterday about 1600 were renewed.

Queues, sometimes 12 and 14 persons long, formed at the licence counters in the City Council offices yesterday. About 300 licences a day are still being renewed by post.

The City Council traffic department has said that drivers without licences or those with unregistered vehicles are liable’ to be prosecuted. About 1600 licences were issued yesterday. The busiest day was Tuesday, when 26,312 licences were issued, and the day before there were 23,913. The most popular term for licences continued to be one and five years.

An “amazing” number of applicants had joined queues, got to the counters, and.then found that their licences had

not expired, an officer said. The registration position, however, is much better than that for driving licences, and is on a par with previous years. The Post Office estimates there are still about 10,000 vehicles in the city yet to be registered, but many of these are trailers or caravans that owners often register late. .

This year many owners reregistered earlier than usual, and as a result the registration branch has had an easier time than usual, with almost no queueing. Most of the extra staff which has been at the registrations branch during June is now no longer needed, and by Monday the staff will have been reduced to normal.

The Post Office yesterday requested two motorists who re-registered at Halswell arid Ferry , road post offices to return two of the three sheets on their registration forms. Instead of taking just the receipt, the motorists walked out with the complete form. The person who did this at the Halswell office received the registration plates AQI3IB and A 01319. At Kerry road the number Was AK6730, and the same thing happened with the person who received a truck registration label 10129524. ’

Only cars received new plates this year. Trade vehicles retain the old yellow and black plates, but have a red label to show the vehicle has been registered.