REINSTATING MOTORISTS

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1030, 22 July 1930, Page 14

REINSTATING MOTORISTS

NO PROVISION IN ACT When the power of a magistrate to reinstate a motorist before the expiry of the term of his disqualification was disputed by Sergeant D. J. O’Neill in the Onehunga Police Court yesterday, Mr. F. H. Levien, S.M., reserved his decision. An application for an order lifting such a disqualification was made on behalf of Harry Gage, farmer, near Papaotetoe, by Mr. A. V. P. Ford, who, in reviewing the case, said that in October last his client had been fined £25 and his licence had been cancelled for one year, for being intoxicated while in charge ot a motor-car. Mr. Ford pointed out ‘that Gage lived at a distance from any form of transport and was obliged to engage others to drive his car. Since his disqualification he had completely reformed his habits and could now safely be trusted to drive. Sergeant D. J. O’Neill: I do not oppose it on account of any doubt as to the applicant’s reformed habits, but solely on the ground that the Motor Vehicles Act confers no power upon a magistrate to cancel the disqualification of a driver. . Mr. Ford: But the magistrates in Auckland have been doing so for years. Have their decisions been illegal? In commenting on the case, Mr. F. H. Levien, S.M., explained that the usual course was to refer the application to the Minister. He contended, however, that there was a danger, if such cancellations became the usual thing, of drivers being quite wiling to pay even a £SO fine in the hope of securing a speedy restoration of their driving licences "I cannot at the moment,” he continued, "think of any method of getting round it and will give a decision at a later date.” A batch of 25 cyclists. mostly vouths. were fined sums varying from 5s upward for travelling at night without lights.