STOLEN BICYCLES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXIV, Issue 16138, 15 January 1913, Page 8

STOLEN BICYCLES.

A test case which was heard in tho Magistrate's Court yesterday seems to have established, for the time being at any rate, the right of bicycle dealers to buy and resoll used machines without becoming subject to the regulations that apply to ordinary traders in second-hand goods. The ruling of tho Magistrate no doubt was entirely sound in law, but the situation that has been defined is by no means satisfactory from the point of view of the public. Bicyoles are stolen in scores and hundreds within the Christchurch district and the proportion of recoveries is very small. The machines cannot have vanished into thin air and since no thief can require more than one bicycle for his own use the obvious deduction is that a market exists for this very portable. form of property. Tho'police officers, who presumably have investigated the matter thoroughly, complete the chain of evidence by saying that many business people "'deal extensively in second-hand bicycles." It is not suggested that the dealer who pays a couple of pounds for a bicycle brought to him by a stranger and resells it at a profit is dishonest in intention, but he is opening a channel for a regular trade in stolen goods. The law which requires that second-hand dealers should be licensed and brought under police supervision was designed to check the operations of thieves and the protection of the bicycle-owners really seems to require that its provisions should be extended. The problem is complicated seriously by the fact that an owner will fail in many cases to recognise his own machine after a few of the parts have been changed, but it might be possible to overcome this difficulty to some extent by making it an offence to sell or buy a bicycle not bearing a number. Certainly some serious effort should be made to prevent a premium being placed on dishonesty.