UNKNOWN LAW.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20296, 4 May 1934, Page 8

UNKNOWN LAW.

Demonstration Plates Used for Pleasure. MAGISTRATE STUDIES ACT. An obscure amendment to the Motor Vehicles Act, allowing, in specified cases, the use of motor-cars bearing demonstration plates for recreation purposes had to be ” dug out ” by Mr E. D. Mosley, S.M* in a traffic case heard in the Magistrate’s Court this morning. William Percy Warner, a car salesman, was charged with driving an unlicensed motor-vehicle, and with driving at a dangerous speed. To the first charge he pleaded not guilty, and to the second, guilty. Warner said that he was driving the car with demonstration plates attached, as he understood that such plates were now allowable on cars used on Sundays for recreation. lie had taken his authority from an issue of “ The Radiator,” organ of the New Zealand Garage Proprietors’ Association, which contained a statement to this effect. The Mgistrate: Is this some new regulation that I have missed? Sub-Inspector Powell: No. He cannot use the plates for recreation. Defendant: It was-stated in the daily papers that the regulations were going to be lifted, and I went on this. G. A. Maybury said that Warner was employed by him as a free-lance car salesman. Defendant had authority to use the plates for demonstration purposes. Witness would not have refused Warner the use of the car for recreation. Sub-Inspector Powell said he understood that in January last an amendment had been made by the Finance Act, enabling garage owners to use cars with demonstration plates for recreation. The Magistrate studied the Act for five minutes, and then said the law had been amended. “ Who would ever think of the Motor Vehicles Act being amended by the Finance Act?” he continued. “ However, the amendment does not apply to Warner, but only to garage owners or car manufacturers.” “If it took you as long as that to find out, I can hardly be blamed for not knowing the law,” said the defendant. The Magistrate (smiling) : It would probably have taken you longer. Defendant amended his plea to guilty and was convicted and discharged. On the charge of speeding, in which it was said he crossed the Bealey Avenue and Papanui Road intersection at between 35 and 40 miles an hour, he was fined £2 and costs.