Oldest holder of car licence?

Press, 14 September 1987, Page 3

Oldest holder of car licence?

A Sumner man, aged 96, reputed to be one of the oldest men in New Zealand still driving, says he found his driving test last Thursday “quite easy.”

Mr Cedric StapyltonSmith, who was 96 last Friday, said the test took him only 10 minutes and included a “quick spin round the block” at the Heathcote County Council.

Mr Stapylton-Smith, who first got a driver’s licence in 1925, said he did not enjoy driving for pleasure any more and now used his Singer Gazelle car to drive to Sumner township or “once in a blue moon” to New Brighton.

“But I never drive for pleasure any more — the traffic seems to be quite

mad,” he said. In his younger days he had driven on all the main roads in the North Island, and even made a trip from the Bay of Islands to Bluff. He said the traffic officer who tested him had told him he was reputed to be one of the oldest men in New Zealand still driving. Mr Stapylton-Smith said he drove more carefully now he was older, and although now not due to be tested for two years believed he should be tested each year. Mr Stapylton-Smith, a retired Banks Peninsula farmer, said drivers in the city were much worse than in the country. “In the city they just tear along.”