EXCESSIVE LOAD CARRIED.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20420, 23 November 1929, Page 15

EXCESSIVE LOAD CARRIED.

BUS ON FIFTH-CLASS ROAD

PROPRIETOR FINED £5. [BY TELEGRAPH. —OWN CORRESPONDENT. ] HAMILTON. Friday. A case of importance to local bodies was heard in the Hamilton Magistrate's Court to-day, when A. L. Dent, bus proprietor, Hamilton, was charged with carrying excessive loads over a fifth-class road. Defendant pleaded guilty. Mr. F. A. S war buck, who prosecuted on behalf of the Waikato County Council, said the charge related to the Hamilton-Matangi-Tauwhare Koad, which was a fifth-class thoroughfare, on which the maximum load allowed was tons. Defendant's bus weighed 4 tons 6cwt. unloaded, and with the 32 passengers it was licensed to carry, would exceed 6 tons, the maximum weight defendant would lie permitted to carry over the main Hamilton-Morrinsville Road, via Newstead. Defendant had been warned against carrying excessive loads. Mr. J. F. Strang, for defendant, said his client had carried on the service for over two years, and had offered to pay' the local body compensation if he were permitted to continue. The rear wheels of his bus were fitted with double pneumatic tyres. The magistrate, Mr. Wyvern Wilson, S.M., said defendant had not followed the route specified in his licence, which referred only to the main road. Cases such as these were of great importance, because they affected local bodies and other users of the road who had to meet the cost of maintenance of country roads. An undue burden was cast on them in consequence of such breaches. Ihe only remedy was to make it too expensive for defaulters to continue the practice.

Defendant was fined £5 and costs,