REGISTRATION PLATES

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 151, 30 June 1928, Page 18

REGISTRATION PLATES

EXISTING METHOD/THE :BEST;; There liave been Several[ ; att^nipt3v , lately to upset, tho -feystem /.of -yearly:. registration plates, and the matter came} before the quarterly-.- meeting /- o f tho. South Island Motor Union, which "re-; jected a remit brought, forward with a! view to a change. Tho complaint\alv; ways is the same—that new plates overyj yea,r impose an expense that could ,:be;; ■better employed in some other diree- 1 tions. Tho remit was quite rightly,rejected, "We all know, that a direct tax is never popular, for tho simplo reason that it is direct, and therefore obvious. Indirect taxation, being largely an unknown' quantity, seems to be the only system that a Government can impose and enjoy, peace. This matter-cf tho registration plate' seems.to act on poople's minds like a direct tax. They can see ;jusit\what they carp, paying, and therefore they kick.-''. ■ . The fact is that nothing has ever been suggested .that will compare with now plates every year, either on the score of expense or from any other viewpoint. : They aro there for everyone to see, and no one can dodgo registration even, for n day should tho police care to prevent it. Moreover, tho motorist is himself free to come and go as he likes;- any other system would entail the frequent stopping of cars to ■■[ascertain if registration had been duly carried-out. Discs or tho windscreen would, be useless in the ordinary course, particularly at night, and any cheaper device than the present plates would mean placarding cars with unsightly brands' neither permanent nor quickly legible. Those who complain of ;the expeuse of the present system should consider the expense that would be Entailed in the policeman's time, and the'inconvenience to themselves, of any of the systems that have been proposed aa an alteru-Hveto the existing procedure, which is positive and also cheap, as it ends with' itself.