LICENSING OF MOTORS.

Shannon News, 28 January 1927, Page 3

LICENSING OF MOTORS.

THE FEES DUE SHORTLY. USE OF NEW NUMBER PLATES. ORANGE AND BLACK COLOURING. The re-licensing of 155,000 motor vehicles in the Dominion will be commenced within a few weeks, and every car, motor-cycle, and commercial motor has to be fitted with the new number plates before April Ist. Before relicensing is completed, the total vehicles will exceed 160,000, if present monthly increases arc maintained. In order to provide for the registration and licensing of new cars during the year, about 180,000 pairs of number plates have been manufactured. Orange and black, a colour combination which will clash with the paint scheme of 90 per cent of cars, has been selected for the 1927 plates. Since the Government has such eye-offending schemes as scarlet and purple in leserve, motorists might yet be thankful for even a lurid orange (states an exchange). A new departure this year will be the use of index letters on the plates to indicate the type of vehicle to which they have been allotted. This will prevent unscrupulous commercial vehicle owners from paying a motor-car license of £2 and attaching the plates to a motor-lorry which should pay an annual license of £5. There will be eight classifications, and the numbeis will start: from 1 in each group. The letters will be in orange on the black background, and will precede the numerals. Motor cars and trucks not exceeding one ton capacity, which are subject to a license fee of £2, will carry plates with numerals alone. Pneu-matic-tyrod lorries over one ton, whica are liable for £3, will have the index Aon the plates. Motor-buses __and solid-tyred lorries, upon which £5 is payable, will be indicated by B. The letter C will indicate two-wheel trailers paying' £l, and D will be used for motor 'dealers demonstration cars, inlying 10s. Vehicles owned by the Government or by local bodies will have plates with the index E. Motor-cycles in general use carry the familiar small type of plate with no letter, and a fee of 10s is charged. Dealers' motorcycles will eary plates with D. Unfortunately, there will be no means of indicating the district in which the ear is licensed, so that the confusion about which the police have complained will probably exist again.Auckland has been allotted the first batch of plates in each of the eight classifications, so that low numbers will be seen there. Over 25,000 pairs of plates will be absorbed by the Auckland postal district. The distribution throughout the -Dominion will be conducted through IS postal districts.