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DEVELOPMENT OF MOTOR TRANSPORT 2. Licensing of Motor-vehicles by Principal Groups.—Under the Motor-vehicles Act, 1924, motor-vehicles are required to be registered and licensed. Such licenses are renewable annually, and the following table gives the number of motor-vehicles, in their principal groups, licensed as at the 31st March, 1946, the figures for the two preceding years being included for purposes of comparison.

All classes of vehicles licensed at 31st March, 1946, showed gains over the figures for the preceding year. Table No. 1 of the Appendix shows full details of the licensed motor-vehicles as at 31st|March, 1946, by postal districts. -Table No. 2 gives, for purposes of comparison, the number of motor-vehicles licensed year by year as at 31st March, 1937, to 1946 inclusive. 3. Petrol Consumption.—The table hereunder shows for the individual calendar years 1937 to 1945 the estimated quantities of petrol consumed by motor-vehicles, used for other purposes, and the total consumption :

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Number licensed as at 31st March, Increase of Type. 1946 over 1944. 1945. 1946. 1945 Licenses. Cars 200,100 199,418 201,425 2,007 Trucks not exceeding 2 tons laden 27,054 28,316 30,435 1,819 Trucks exceeding 2. tons laden .. 19,928 21,985 23,499 1,514 Passenger-trucks .. 1,454 1,576 1,947 371 Omnibuses.. 862 932 1,025 93 Taxis, including private hire cars 1,987 2,005 2,113 108 Service cars 550 572 595 23 Rental cars .. .. .. 500 501 546 45 Motor-cycles 12,526 13,667 16,167 2,500 Trailers .. .. ;.. 15,059 17,064 20,031 2,967 Local body and other vehicles exempted from 7,430 9,611 11,903 2,292 annual license fees . Government vehicles 4,687 5,207 5,814 607 Totals 292,137 301,154 315,500 14,346 • or 4*76 per cent.

Estimated Consumption, of Petrol. Calendar Year. By Motor-vehicles (i.e., Petrol on which all Duty, was paid). Other (i.e., Engines, Aeroplanes, &c., on which Refunds of Petrol Duty were made) Total. 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 Gallons. 82,111,000 89,306,000 91,955,000 74,114,000 66,924,000 46,100,000 50,178,000 53,663,000 65,541,000 . Gallons. 7,339,000 7,590,000 8,027,000 9,649,000 15,326,000 10,442,000 9,200,000 9,000,000 , . 8,110,000 Gallons. 89,450,000 96,896,000 99,982,000 83,763,000 82,250,000 56,542,000 59,378,000 62,663,000 73,651,000