MOTORISTS CONFUSED.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19604, 5 April 1927, Page 10

MOTORISTS CONFUSED.

RENEWAL OF LICENCES. DUTY AND REGULATIONS. Confusion exists in tho minds of motorists regarding the renewal of drivers" licences. It has been customary for applicants to choose the authority to whom they pay the fee of ss. When the Motor Vehicles Act came into force in 1924, the Auckland City Council and the Mount Eden Borough Council were the only bodies to immediately accept responsibility for the issue of licences, but since then half-a-dozen local bodies have entered the field. By the regulatho motorist to apply to tho authority tions under the Act, it is obligatory for the motorist to apply to the authority in whose district the garage is situated. This stipulation is not taken seriously by several authorities, and the Auckland City Council has already issued many licences to applicants who should have taken their custom to some borough council. The clerk of the Otahuhu Borough Council states in a letter published in the Herald yesterday that drivers commit a breach of the regulations if they ignore this provision. Since the Act stipulates that a licence is operative throughout the Dominion until March 31 of each year, the validity of licences issued in apparent contravention of part of the regulations is not impugned. The regulation bearing on the subject is clause 4 of the regulations made under the Motor Vehicles Act. The clause is divided into three sub-clauses, of which the first purports to lay down that the applictaion for a motor driver's licenco must be made to the local authority in whose district the garage is situated. The second sub-clause provides for the' issue oi licences to drivers other than the owners of vehicles and here again the clause purports to lay down that the application must be made to the local authority in whose district the applicant is resident. A third sub-clause, however, sets out that " the validity of a motor driver's licence, purporting to be issued under these regulations, shall not bo affected by reason merely of the fact that it is not issued by the appropriate locsll authority in accordance with the foregoing provisions ot this clause, if it is issued by a local authority competent to issue motor drivers' licences."