A MISTAKE

Waipa Post, Volume XXIV, Issue 1641, 14 May 1925, Page 4

A MISTAKE

VALUABLE AID DISCARDED. The tragedy at Rotoma points out in startling manner the ill effect of deleting the district lettering and numbers on motor cars. It may be pointed out without fear of contradiction that had the car on which •Olsen and his victim travelled carried the town or registration 'lettering, the identity of the occupants could have been established beyond reasonable doubt inside of half an hour from the time the tragedy was made known by telephone from Rotoma at Rotorua. As it was, telegrams and telephones were going all over the North Island. Speculation was rife and much unhappiness, doubt and anxiety inflicted on thousands. From the time the news was received at the police headquarters, definite knowledge of the ownership of the car could have been obtained in ten minutes by urgent telephone. The consecutive New Zealand number plates might have beetn used without removing the local and particular registration name and number. It was a colossal mistake, and the, Government has, by establishing the new scheme, thrown away the best aid to the detection of crime. They have also destroyed the personal individual interest of motorists and removed the chance that the district name plate gave of inquiry as to road conditions or on subjects valuable to the travelling public. Under the old system, when a car came into Rotorua with a Napier, Gisborne or Waikato lettering, other travellers going to or from such places could inquire without having to put a wilderness oi futile questions as to conditions. Now, with cars coming from all over the Dominion, the inquiry comes almost as an impertinence. The sooner the district lettering is replaced the better for the safety of the public.—Chronicle, Rotorua.