MOTOR LORRIES

Southland Times, Issue 21097, 31 May 1930, Page 8

MOTOR LORRIES

r NEW REGULATIONS

PROTECTION OF ROADS

DISTRIBUTION OF LOADS

(Per United Press Association.)

Wellington, May 30.

An Order-in-Council was to-day signed by his Excellency the Governor-General effecting the following amendments to the motor lorry regulations which deal with the protection of roads from heavy traffic, and the taxation of such traffic.

The licenses issued on payment of the taxes are at present annual and the applicant is entitled to pay his fees in four quarterly instalments. Thus he is able to obtain a-license for a full year on payment of one quarter’s fee. Local authorities have objected to this as increasing their difficulties of administration and therefore provision is made that in future a quarter’s license fee will entitle the owner' only to a quarteryear license. As owing to the recent political happenings, delay has occurred in the issue of the Order-in-Council, a clause is included so that where licenses have already been issued, no change thereto will be necessary if the applicant has paid his fees for the full term of the license. It is already the law that the motor vehicle known as the six-wheeler may be used on firstclass roads, although weighing up to 15 tons gross, and the Order-in-Council is intended to make it clear that the modern type of six-wheeler (what is known as the rigid type) may, if of a class approved by the Minister, be included in the same law similarly on roads classified lower than the first class. The multi-axled motor lorry, as these types are called, will be entitled to a corresponding increase over that limit to which the two axle machine is bound.

The gross weight limits for third and fourth class roads are altered from 6 tons and 4 tone to 64 tons and 44 tons respectively, these being the limits for two axled machines on those classes of roads.

The present classifications impose a handicap on vehicles manufactured in England and the alteration is desigped to remove that anomaly. It is provided that the total weight of the vehicle and its load, which is borne by any one axle, shall not exceed 6 tone in the case of a multi-axled machine and 8 tons in any other case, and the steering axle must carry at least 18 per cent of the total weight of the vehicle and its load. This amendment is partly a precautionary one resulting from the foregoing provisions relating to multi-axled machines.

It is understood that the foregoing amendments are regarded by the Government as being urgently required and that they have either been advocated or agreed to by the majority of local bodies. It is learnt that a complete review of the regulations is now well under way and that they will shortly be issued in draft form for consideration by local bodies and others concerned, consolidated and with many other amendments.