CAR DRIVERS' LICENCES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19960, 31 May 1928, Page 13

CAR DRIVERS' LICENCES

NECESSITY FOR RENEWAL. CONVICTION AT HAMILTON. COMMENTS BY MAGISTRATE. [BY TELEGRAPH. OWtJ CORRESPONDENT, j HAMILTON, Wednesday. The decision of Mr. J. H. Luxford, S.M., who dismissed a number of informations against motorists charged with driving vehicles without being the holders of drivers' licences, was not followed by Mr. F. W. Platts, S.M., in a reserved decision given in the Hamilton Magistrate's Court to-day. The cases brought bflore Mr. Luxford were dismissed under section 92 of the Justice of the Peace Act, the magistrate holding that owing to a flaw in the Motor Vehicles Amendment Act of 1927 motor drivers' licences issued by local bodies for the year 1927-28 were permanently valid. Iri his decision to-day in a caso in which a young man, Claude Asitton, was prosecuted by the Hamilton Borough Council (Mr. F. A. Swarbrick), Mr. Platts said: "In this case defendant had, on April 24, failed to renew his motor driver's licence for the current year. Mr. Luxford recently dismissed, under section 92 of the Justice of the Peace Act, several similar prosecutions against persons who held licences for last year. He informs me he did so because of the uncertainty of the legal position and because he considered that the prosecutions had been brought with undue haste. "In Auckland, it appears, motorists are allowed until April 30 to renew their licences, while here the prosecutions were begun on April 17. The fact that we have to invoke the Acts Interpretation Act to assist to decide what the existing legislation means shows that the law is not as clear and certain as it should be on the question at issue. "In my opinion, however, tlje defendant must be convicted and fined 10s and costs.'"