TEN THOUSAND MORE.

Manawatu Times, Volume 61, Issue 145, 22 June 1936, Page 9

TEN THOUSAND MORE.

MOTOR VEHICLE LICENSING. MAKING UP THE CENTRAL REGISTER. The Director-General of the Post Office, -who is Registrar of Motor Vehicles, intimates that preliminary returns of the re-licensing indicate that approximately 10,000. more vehicles were licensed at the end of May than was tho case last year. The greatest increase was in respect of car licenses, namely, 7087; truck licenses increased by 2218. Tho number of licenses issued for taxis, omnibuses, rental and private hire cars etc., was only slightly above that of last year. Motor-cycle licenses,, however, havo shown a doeline to the extent of 483. The only other decrease %vas in respect of service cars, 23 fewer sets of plates being assigned to them. A better guide to the trend of the motor business will be supplied by the figures for'June, and indications are that the ro-licensing so far this month is hi vier than it was for the same period last year.

The rush of work in connection with motor licensing now moved from the Post Office counters to the Transport section of the General Post Office, where the permanent staff has been augmented by a largo numbe. of temporary officers who are busy amending tho records +o show the current year's plates alloted to all motor- vehicles in New Zealand. This affords an important national check on the ownership of motors. The central register is kept tn the form of a loose card index nd includes particulars of over a quarter of a million vehicles