“YOUR LICENSE?”

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 189, 11 August 1931, Page 9

“YOUR LICENSE?”

Inspectors Hold Up Motor Traffic. MANY FORGETFUL DRIVERS. “Your license, please?” Virtually all motor traffic on the main routes in and around the city was held up to-day by an army of traffic inspectors in search of drivers without licenses. A fair proportion of the drivers found to their chagrin that they had left their licenses at home. Their names were taken, and more will probablv be heard of the matter. Race traffic on Papanui Road, Lincoln Road, and the Main South Road had to wait its turn while the inspectors, drawn from the city and surrounding borough and countv councils, satisfied themselves regarding the holders of licenses. In some cases the stream of waiting traffic was several chains in. length. First Comprehensive Raid. This is the first occasion on which such a comprehensive traffic “ drive ” has been organised. The City Council inspectors have on National Day in other years made a raid on the principal streets; this year adjoining local bodies were invited to co-operate, and upon their acceptance of the invitation a studied plan of attack was evolved. So complete were the arrangements that very few motorists escaped the inspectorial net. The traffic “ highwaymen ” apparently had taken a hint from street collectors, who, by labelling persons who give donations, indirectly cause others to be singled for attention. Motorists who were held up had their cars labelled with a sticker so that their first unenviable experiende should be the last for that day, and this prevented overlapping in the issuing of summonses.’ Give# Time to Produce Them. In cases where drivers declared that they had licenses, but could not produce them at the moment, they were generally given twenty-four hours in which to produce them. It is expected that there will be a queue at the City Council's traffic counter when the municipal offices open to-morrow morning. The Riccarton Borough Council, Sumner Borough Council and* Heathcote County Council were among the local bodies that agreed to co-operate with the City Council in the hold-up. The inspectors of the "outlying local bodies operated in their own districts. Over 1000 Cars Tagged. All entrances to the city were guarded by the inspectors, and by noon over 1000 cars had been held up and tagged./ Over 10 per cent of the drivers did not have licenses with them, but promised to produce them * within twenty-four hours. Country people were given an extension of time. From 2J to 3 per cent of the drivers accosted admitted that they did not have licenses. The raid was not devoid of humorous incidents. One driver, who was accompanied by a woman passenger, declared that he would like to tell j the Chief Traffic Inspector (Mr 11. Macintosh) what he thought of him. He refrained from doing so when given the chance. Another man who was held up in the queue worked himself into an excited state because delay meant that he would be late for a wedding at Lyttelton. A woman driver from Geraldine produced licenses to ride a motor-cycle and drive a car, taxi-cab, and omnibus. And she had only a baby car. The majority of drivers held up were in favour of the raid, and several declared that it was unreasonable and unfair that anyone should drive without a license, not only because of the loss of public revenue but also because there was no guarantee that the unlicensed person was a safe driver.