“HAVE YOU A PERMIT?”

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 9, Issue 38, 25 January 1946, Page 3

“HAVE YOU A PERMIT?”

V. licenses and registrations

an interesting review

Have you ever stopped to consider -how many permits,-it takes to control a “free country”? Perhaps but when we come to review the we find that our lives are governed far more than we would perhaps care to admit by licenses 5 ■regulations and permits. We print Lelow t an article by Mr E. K. Gamier on, Provincial Secretary of the New Zealand Farmers’ which gives an interesting review of the permits which intrude eternally into

our everyday lives. The article reads as follows: —.

“I look back on the past 20 years and quietly reflect on the evolution of the freedom of democracy. “Having decided to abandon single freedom and. take unto myself a wife I faced up to my first real responsibility only to find that I must first pay a fee and obtain a license to wed. One would have expected that the marriage license would carry the right to all other requirements of life as such a change of marital status would involve but experience lias disillusioned me on this point.

“In due time the household increased and I was faced with the necessity of registration, or in other

words, obtain a license to keep a child. I also ascertained that had the baby died a license would have been necessary to have the body interred. As the child waxpd strong, a request was made for a pet clog, and here again our first animal had to be registered and an annual fee of ten shillings paid.

“Later I installed a radio and this called for another license and annual fee. The purchase of a motor car called for still another license and fee, and then I discovered that before I could drive the vehicle a driver’s license was a statutory requirement with yet another fee. Later came another fee and"swas;tage of metal in the annual changing of number plates and Certificates of

Fitness now required every six months.

“As part of my hobby equipment I secured a small revolver, only to find this, too, called for a license and payment of a registration fee. Would this turmoil of licensing ever cease ?

“At this stage in my married bliss I purchased a new home and soon discovered that it was necessary to notify the authorities regarding the change of abode of my radio and my revolver. Rejoicing in the thought

that my marriage license did not place any obligation on me to notify the removal of my wife and family, it was not long before the electoral authorities were on rny trail to register the change of address. “With a larger acreage at my conv mand I decided to purchase some poultry and for this still another iieense with annual fee was required of me. Later 1 had a visit, from the Orchard Inspector with the perpetual sequence—another license—another yearly fee. “The children, each of whom had to l)c registered on arrival, now induced me to allow them to have a pet opossum and, woe of woes —still another permit was required. “Having succumbed to the Taranaki urge to keep a lew cows I found that my milking shed required licensing with payment of an annual fee. Further I had. to register my live stock, separator, milking machine and electric motors by Filing an agricultural return yearly. “A personal registration was now required under the Social Security legislation and later a license, or dole book had to he obtained for the wife. The family registration having increased I. decided to purchase a camp

trailer for the car, and this, too, had to be licensed with annual registration and changing of number plates as well as Certificate of Fitness and I also discovered that I had,’to obtain a fishing license and a shooting license for my holidays. “At this stage. I gave some consideration to the establishment of

honey bees but on discovering that a license and permit were required I left the sting at that. “The. birds becoming troublesome

in the orchard I purchased a riile anil still another permit Avas ncces-i sary. Then a terrible thing happened—my children won a pair of rabbits' in a patriotic art union and

I was faced again with the neverending control of permits before I could allow the children to keep their newly-won pets. “Petrol licensing now appeared on the scene and under the War Emergency Regulations I have had to enroll in the National Reserve for work of national importance, though I had already registered under the E.P.S. and the Home Guard. “My latest permit is for the purchase of the necessary fertiliser for my farmlet. For some unaccountable reason my pigs have been overlooked

in the licensing scheme although one has now to pay a Government levy of threepence per pig.

“The introduction of the rationing scheme has imposed further limitations on my freedom, with still another registration of the members of the household and coupons being required for food items and clothing.

“I am not discussing the. merits or otherwise of all these licenses, registrations and permits, but this review will give some idea of the extent to which bureaucracy has raised its head in this country. The large and ever-increasing Civil Service is rapidly gaining complete control over the lives actions and thinking power of the people. Such is the freedom of Democracy. There is some small comfort left in that my beautiful cat of neuter gender is free from license, and although I have to pay heavy taxes on tobacco I may still enjoy my pipe without first having to apply for a license to smoke same.”