THE LATEST COUNT

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 556, 8 January 1929, Page 7

THE LATEST COUNT

N.Z. HAS 180,000 CARS

At the beginning: of December there were 185,693 motor vehicles registered in New Zealand; 19,274 are definitely off the road with expired licences and obsolete number-plates. It is also certain that some of the lapsed licences refer to vehicles which have been destroyed or knocked down for spare parts. The existence of over 19,000 dormant registrations, however, indicates that a large number of secondhand cars must have been lying in storage since the licensing period last March. BACKWARD U.S. LAWS Considering that America is the home of the automobile, or rather has become tbe manufacturing home of motor vehicles since the outbreak of the war, a review of tbe motor Acts of the various States leaves the reader absolutely amazed.

Recently in certain States there began an agitation for the introduction of : “model” regulations which would include the compulsory issue of drivers’ licences! It appears that in a number «_»f States neither ordinary drivers nor chauffeurs now are required to have licences: that several States have no minimum age limit for a car driver, while others permit cars to be driven by children of fourteen years. Little wonder that a half-million serious motor accidents and 27,000 motor deaths occur annually in the States.