CAR RELICENSING

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 May 1940, Page 4

CAR RELICENSING

NEW PLATES AND COUPONS ISSUE STARTS NEXT WEEK. ALTERATION IN PROCEDURE. Relicensing of motor vehicles will commence at the Masterton Post Office. in common with other centres throughout New Zealand on Monday next. May 6. At the same time that motorists receive their new plates they will be issued with new petrol coupons, for use as from June 1. The new plates have white numbers on a Venetian red background. The petrol coupons now held by motorists will become obsolete after May 31. and no more will be issued to the owners of private cars till they have paid their licence fees for the 1940-41 year. When an owner has paid his fee and is receiving the new number plates he will be given coupons appropriate to the horse-power class to which his car belongs. The colours and quantities for which they are good are as follows:—One-gallon coupons, with violet background, for motor-cycles; two-gallon coupons, with red background, for cars under 9.5 h.p.; three-gallon coupons, with yellow background, for cars between 9.5 h.p. and 14.5 h.p.; four-gallon coupons with green background, for cars over 14.5 h.p. The coupons will be in perforated sheets, as are the coupons now in use. and 3G. sufficient for a year if the ration is not altered, will be handed to each car owner. The sheets are being numbered, so that none may go astray and so that a system of auditing may be maintained. The coupons have been designed so as to make forgery difficult, being overprinted on a coloured back-ground that is hard to copy. Owners of large cars, who use the four-gallon coupons, will not be compelled to buy petrol in four-gallon lots, for it has been announced officially that service station attendants will be allowed to accept a four-gal-lon coupon for a small quantity of spirit and give “change” in smaller coupons if they have them. Some alterations have been made in the form of application for relicensing. An owner will now be asked the horse-power of his car, so that he may be provided with the proper coupons, and will have to state the kind of fuel the car uses. The kind of fuel has become of importance since there has been a tendency to use substitutes for petrol. Cars which do not use petrol, and whose owners thus do not contribute petrol tax, are liable to pay mileage tax.