WAY OF NUMBERING MOTOR VEHICLES

Southland Times, Issue 23123, 13 February 1937, Page 14

WAY OF NUMBERING MOTOR VEHICLES

SUGGESTION MADE TO MINISTER More than once the Minister of Transport (the Hon. R. Semple) has asked whether a change in the expensive annual method of attaching new number plates to motor-vehicles is advocated, states a writer in The Dominion. A patient in the Wellington Hospital has sent him a letter with diagrams suggesting the use of a permanent number plate with the year indicated by 36 or 37, or whatever it might be, on a smaller strip to be attached each year above the number. The suggestion does not overcome some item of expense as a new year plate would have to be paid for. Moreover, two numerals would not permit of sufficient change in the lettering to unmask those who might think it advisable to try to beat the law. Another point is that the plates to which number plates are attached would require widening, and then tail-lights, some of which barely reveal the plates of today, would require some alteration. Apart from those considerations the authorities, because of the insurance question, are opposed to a permanent number plate. The inventor of the suggested method, in writing to The Dominion, mentions a charge of 5/- for his attachment, and that amount is what the motorist is paying today. It is to escape that annual toll on the motorist that the Minister and others have been trying to evolve a better system than that of today.