UNLICENSED DRIVERS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22006, 12 January 1935, Page 14

UNLICENSED DRIVERS

MAGISTRATE'S COURT SEQUEL

SUBMISSION BY COUNSEL [from our own correspondent] PTJKEKOHE, Friday When travelling on the road which skirts the foreshore of the Hauraki Gulf between Whakatiwai and Kaiana on December 6, Mr. Frederick Jones, traffic inspector for the Manukau County Council, came upon two lorries carting tea-tree. One had no number plates, nor had the driver of either of the vehicles a driver's licence. The sequel was the prosecution of both men by the inspector in the Pukekohe Magistrate's Court to-day. It was stated that Fr:/ik Hook, who was the owner of both the lorries, was driving the one with the number plates. Ho was charged with allowing the other lorry to be used when it was not licensed, with employing an unlicensed driver, William Froarson, and with having no driver's licence" him-, self. Froarson was charged with operating a motor vehicle without number plates and with having no driver's licence.

Evidence was given by the inspector that tlie vehicles were taking the teatree about a quarter of a mile along the road to a. point on the foreshore, where it could be loaded on barges. On behalf of defendants,* Mr. W. Grandison submitted that, as Hook was working for the owner of the property on both sides of the road, he was entitled to use the lorries to take the tea-tree from the landward portion of the property to the seaward portion without licensing the vehicles, although the route involved crossing the road. The magistrate, Mr. F. H. Levien, held that the authorities quoted hardly verified the submission. In any case, an unlicensed vehicle was not entitled to use a quarter of a mile of the road. Fines totalling £4 and costs, £1 Ms, were imposed on Hook. Frearson was fined CI 10s and costs, .CI 4s.