"CONVERSION” OF MOTOR-CARS.

Taranaki Daily News, 27 September 1933, Page 6

"CONVERSION” OF MOTOR-CARS.

It is impossible not to sympathise with

the owners of motor vehicles in their request for severer penalties for the offence punishable by a Court the seizure was again pointed out by the South Taranaki Automobile Association recently, the former idea that the “borrowing” of a motor vehicle was often more a prank than a theft can no longer be held. In the majority of cases such action is theft, and it is a curious thing that in a country in which the use of a telegram form for other than official purposes is an offence punishable by a Court the seizure and use, with very often serious damage, of valuable property should be treated so lightly by the authorities. They consider that to make heavier penalties possible for the "conversion” of motor-cars would lift the offence into a category demanding reference to the Supreme Court and trial by jury. But if this will cause a decrease in the number of the offences committed the extra expense will be well worth while, and, as motorists’ associations have often pointed out, the argument is one that might be applied to any class of crime including murder itself. The proof of the efficacy of any law and its administration is the effect it has. No one with any knowledge of the facts can claim that the law against “conversion” of motor vehicles is proving an effective deterrent against that offence. Motor transport is now one of the most important of public services, and there is commonsense as well as justice in the demand that theft, or “conversion” if the term be preferred, of a motor vehicle shall be treated as at least quite as serious an offence as the theft of a horse or a sheep.