BICYCLE REGISTRATION

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22198, 27 August 1935, Page 10

BICYCLE REGISTRATION

PROTECTION AGAINST THEFT SCHEME NOT FAVOURED The registration of bicycles as an aid to recovering them in cases of theft was not favoured by a number of cyclists and cycle dealers to whom the suggestion was submitted yesterday. A company has recently been registered in Dunedin with this proposal as its main object, but it was thought that such an activity in Auckland would have little value. In the first place, it was stated, the methods used by thieves would probably overcome all precautions taken for ensuring the identification of stolen bicycles. Their scheme of operation was generally to dismantle the bicycles they had stolen and to build new ones from the various parts of different machines. Identification was therefore made most difficult. All bicycles, of course, had numbers stamped on them by tho makers, but it was a simple process to filo these off. Presumably any registration numbers or marks could bo as easily removed. Furthermore, it was felt that registration in Auckland was unnecessary, owing to the relatively few thefts that occur hero, as compared with southern centres, particularly Christchurch The risk of loss not being so great, owners would bo prepared to leave such cases to the police to investigate. More trouble might bo experienced in this respect, however, as tho number of bicycles increased, it was stated At a conservative estimate it was considered that there were at least 10,000 bicycles in Auckland at present, and that total was rapidly increasing. The increase had started with tho onsot of the deprcsnion five years ago, and one dealer estimated that his sales had increased 500 per cent since then.