HEAVY TRAFFIC LICENSES

Ellesmere Guardian, Volume XLV, Issue 3182, 6 January 1928, Page 5

HEAVY TRAFFIC LICENSES

LOCAL BODIES EXEMPTED.

A TIMARU TEST CASE.

Recently judgment was given in the Supreme Court at Timaru in an action, Timaru Borough Council v. South Canterbury Electric Power Board, an originating summons to determine whether the motor lorries, the property of the Board, were subject to the payment of license fees.

His Honor stated that the case was one which came under the Declaratory Judgments Act, 1908. The plaintiff was the licensing authority under the Motor Lorry Regulations, 1927, for Highway District No. 17, and the defendant Board was operating in that district, and had its offices within the district. The Board maintained two Leyland motor trucks each weighing with their maximum load upwards of 5 tons, and a tractor and trailer, the combined weight and load of which was upwards of 7 tons. These machines were used by the Board for, the purpose of carrying poles, wire and other material used by the Board in connexion with the reticulation of the district under its control, and of other heavy materials used in connexion with the Board's works, but not for the purpose of carrying goods sold by the Board. The machines had been used without a license and the plaintiff claimed that the machines are motor lorries within the definition of that term in the Regulations, and must therefore be licensed. r ■ - The first question submitted is:— (1) What is the meaning or construction of the term "used for comimercial purposes," as contained in the definition of "motor lorry" in paraS graph one of the '' Motor Lorry Regulations Act, 1927" t If the answer to this question excluded the machines in question from the definition licenses were not required under < the regulations, and there was no necessity to answer the remaining questions. What, then was the meaning of the term "commercial purposes"? The meaning of the word "commercial" had been considered in several cases.

His Honor then quoted the cases. These made it clear that the purpose of profit was implied in the term "commercial purpose."

An examination of the Electric Power Board's Act, 1925, showed that the Boards constituted under it were not commercial bodies. They were local authorities under the Local Elections and Polls Act, 1925, the Mining Act, 1908, the Valuation" of Land Act, 1925-, the Land Act, 1925, the Public Works Act, 1908 (section 81) and the Finance Act (section 71). The members were elec-I ted by the ratepayers of the district. The Boards had power to levy a rate to provide for any estimated deficiency. Their accounts were audited by the Audit Office. All moneys, except capital moneys, borrowed in the hands of a Board at the commencement of a financial* year must be included as income in the estimates for that year; and the power of rating could be exercised only in respect of the excess of estimated expenditure over the estimated income after such inclusion. Finally, the whole undertaking of the Board might be purchased by the Crown without any payment for goodwill, and in i that event any surplus remaining in I the hands of the Board after discharging liabilities, was to be divided between the local authorities of the constituent districts. It was evident, therefore, that although there might from time to time be a surplus shown in the Board's accounts for any year, that surplus was not profit in the commerical sense, but formed part of the Board's funds for carrying out the objects of the Act. Those objects might be shortly stated to be to make adequate provision for the generation1 and supply of electric current for power and lighting in districts where the ratepayers were willing to accept the liability to pay rates, if and when required, to cover any deficiencies in the annual estimates of the Board. By the scheme of the Act, the element of commercial profit was eliminated to assure the supply of current at the lowest possible price.

The answer to the question (a) was that the term "commercial purpose" in the regulation was to be understood in its ordinary sense as explained in the cases which had been referred to and included the purposes of profit.

The motor vehicles of the Board were not within the definition of "mo-

tor lorry" in the regulations. What had been said also applied to the term "commercial purposes" in section 19 of the Public Works Act, 1924.

. The defendant's costs of £15 15s and disbursements would be repaid bjr the plaintiffs.