NUMBERS ON MOTOR VEHICLES

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 220, 11 June 1921, Page 8

NUMBERS ON MOTOR VEHICLES

MUST BE EASILY DISTINGUISHABLE

WHERE SHOULD PLATES BE PLACED ?

The City Council’s traffic inspectors are energetically combating any tendency on the part of motorists to evade the law regarding number-plates. Tho by-law on tho number question is most explicit. Blates have to be displayed at tho front and at the back of cars, and they must bear tho letters WN (to signify Wellington legist in (ion), and then the number, either alongside or beneath the letters. The statute stipulates that the number shall be “easily distinguishable.” That is not very definite, as a man might consider white figures on a buff ground easily distinguishable, when from a little distance they are nothing of tho sort. Only the other day one of tho inspectors discovered an owner who had painted his number in gold on a yellow body. This was quite artistic in appearance, but the inspector considered that it did not meet the requirements of tho law. It is said to bo a little difficult to nominate an exact place on cars for tho placing of the plate, as every fnake of car is of different design; therefore, only tho front of the car is nominated, pnd here again some confusion arises, 'as some owners have the number-plate, put between the si(Jo of ’ the radiator and the front wheel, and others bury it right under tho radiator, where it is promptly obscured by mud splashes. This is stated to be an evasion of the law which requires that the plato shall., be "easily distinguishable.” On one taxi examined yesterday tho number was painted just below the radiator, in the centre, but it was obscured by a fender that projected a couple of feet in front of the car. Caught!

While an inspector was on duty yesterday he pulled up a car, which had no front number at all. In addition to there being, no front number at all, it was found that the back number was only written in chalk, and that the driver had no certificate. Yet the owners had been fined recently for a similar offence. The City Council has insisted on distinctness m the figures by issuing specific instructions as to the size of letters and figures. A copy of these instructions is handed to each person concerned in the initial registration of a car. The Size of Figures. In the case of plates, each plate must ba rectangular and bear upon it tho index mark of tho registering authority, and tho separate number assigned to tho motor by that authority, the mark and number being arranged in conformity with tho arrangement of letters and figures shown on one or other of the above alternative diagrams: In cases where the letters and figures are painted upon the motor, the foregoing provisions, mutatis mutandis, plyAU letters and figures must bo 3Ain high; every part of every letter and figure must ho fin. broad; and the total width of tho space taken by every letter or figure, except in the case of the figure 1, must bo' 2jin. The space between adjoining lottere and between adjoining figures must bo tin. and there must be a margin tn the case of plates between the nearest part of anv letter or figure and the edge- of the plate of at least , In tho case of marks for a motor-cycle of a weight unladen not. exceeding 3cwt., each of the dimensions aforementioned may bo halved, and tho shape of the plates need not be rectangular so long as the minimum margin between any letter or figure and the bottom, top, or sides of tho plate is preserved. Back plates must always bo placed so that the rear light will illuminate the ’number. Tn Christchurch and some other places, the owner of a car, on registerihg it, must purchase 'frdm the. council number-plates for the front and back, so that all plates are uniform. In Wellington it is left io the owner to get bis plates made where and how he likes, and the result is an absence of uniformity of desigp. A Mew Design. A new design in number-plates has been brought under the notice of the inspector in Wellington. ’lhi> a , sma “ box, with a glass front on which the number of the is fio-lel whilst tho rest of the glass is blacked but Tho advantage of the device H that, the number shows ordinary blacK and white during daylight, and after dark is illuminated with a small electric light, which makes the number stand out very clearly. The new-design satisfied all tests, but how long the g.a-.s front would stand the vibration or shocks that a ear is subject tn bo proved only by a lengthy test ovei all manner of reads.