HEAVY TRAFFIC FEES

Manawatu Standard, Volume IV, Issue 280, 27 October 1931, Page 8

HEAVY TRAFFIC FEES

UNPAID AMOUNTS. MAGISTRATE’S COMMENT. “I look upon this as a most serious matter and although it has not appeared much in the Court in 1* eliding it has in centres outside,” stated Mr It. M. Watson, S.M., in the Feilding Magistrate’s Court this morning when dealing with a charge which had been prepared against a Feilding lorry owner for driving his lorry without paying the requisite heavy traffic license. . . , In pleading exentuating financial circumstances as tire reason for the non-payment of the license fee, counsel for defendant said that he (defendant) was already heavily embarassed financially and the position was, so to speak, that “the load of straw was becoming too great for the camel s back.” It was this fact and not wilful disobedience of his lawful obligations which had caused defendant s remission. “It seems to me ; ” continued Mr Watson, “that it is the practice of some lorry owners to wait until they are caught before they pay the heavy traffic license, which in this instance is £5 2s per quarter. It is important, therefore that, such being the case, the penalty, be made more than the quarter’s license fee, otherwise it is useless —absolutely useless. That such a practice can go on no system can allow, otherwise it would break down, and it has been my practice to fine defaulting heavy traffic lorry drivers more than the amount they are liable for in respect to the license. Defendant might be in a bad state financially, but the public bodies of the country are not so wealthy that they can carry on under such a system. Lorry drivers will have to pay despite their 'financial burdens, for it is very much better that their ‘camel’s back’ bo hroken than that of the local bodies.”

On the application of counsel for accused tiro case was adjourned for a fortnight to allow defendant timo to pay the license fees.