1.—15.

32

[B. L. HAMMOND.

Mr. Murdoch.] Would you give us some idea of what you consider should be the maximum load ? —I think the present regulations are fair. They fix the maximum loads for the different classes of roads. We are not asking for any alteration there. We frankly admit there should be classification, but we do say that the classification adopted in the Auckland Province is carrying the regulation to an absurdity, when something like fourteen local bodies within five miles of the Chief Postoffice at Auckland have 436 streets classified. To send a driver out and expect him to know the classification of the whole route he has to follow is an absurdity. If all local bodies were doing their duty all the streets should be capable of carrying 10 tons, but we admit that, so far as country roads are concerned, classification is necessary, and we do not object. The Chairman.'] Do you think it fair that a main highway should appear in the No. 4 classification ? —Generally speaking, it should not be ; but if it is a case that it will not carry the load, then, of course, it has to be, but the classification should be made as high as possible. But an absurdity of the present classification is the prejudicial effect it has on British vehicles, the chassis of which are anything from | a ton to 15 cwt. heavier than the American-vehicle chassis. That means that the American vehicle can be loaded with 15 cwt. more than the British, and yet simultaneously we put through a preferential tariff for British vehicles.

Wednesday, 9th October, 1929. James Frederick Cousins examined. (No. 11.) The Chairman.'] What interests do you represent, Mr. Cousins ?—I am secretary of the New Zealand Motor Trade Association ; that is the organization of the garage people —what you might call the retailers ; but for this particular business I represent the whole of the trade, both wholesale and retail. The principal reason that I asked to be allowed to appear before you was to try and clear up the position regarding dealers' plates, which is dealt with in this particular Bill —subclause (2) of clause 15. There is a very general misunderstanding as to what a dealer's plate is. Some of the criticism that I have read in the newspapers displays such ignorance of the real value and responsibility of the plate that I thought it advisable to appear before the Committee and endeavour to show just what a dealer's plate is, and what this amendment means. Dealer's plates go right back, in my experience, to the advent of the motor-car in New Zealand, and at the outset there was no law in New Zealand covering them. We were covered by the English law. We simply paid 10s. per annum for a dealer's plate, and had an unrestricted use of it. We could have as many plates as we liked, and the number on them all was the same. If, for instance, my firm's number was 500, that was the number of the plate, with the initials of the firm distinctly shown as well. That worked quite satisfactorily in the early days, when there were not many cars, but soon the difficulty of identification by the police arose. Still there was no law, but we had a working arrangement with the police that we kept a note of where the particular cars were and who was using them, and that worked satisfactorily until the Motorvehicles Act came into force. That Act gave us, for the same fee of 10s. per annum, the use of particular plates, with the restriction that they were to be used on vehicles held only for the purposes of sale. But we found severe objections to that. In the first instance, the fee of 10s. being considerably less than the fee of £2 for an ordinary plate, we found people getting dealers' plates who were not entitled to them —kerbstone people, and people who would make use of a concession simply to get a lower fee ; and we also found that the use was too restricted to be of any value at all. There was a Supreme Court case in Auckland, where a dealer was summoned for the use of a trade plate on a car which was not a car he was actually selling but was what was called a demonstration car, and the Court held that the trade plate could not be used on a car unless it was a car that the dealer was actually selling. When that judgment was given we approached the Government through Mr. Coates and Mr. Williams, and we also took it up with the officers of the Department, and offered to pay the full fee, just the same as for an ordinary plate, if we could have the restrictions lifted. That was agreed to by the Government. From that time we paid a fee of £2 for each number-plate, on the understanding that its use was to be unrestricted. You could shift it from one car to another ?—Yes. When the Bill came before Parliament the restrictions were still there,- and it was proposed to restrict the use of trade plates still further by prohibiting their use after six o'clock or at any time on Sunday. We took exception to that, and Mr. Coates stated that it was quite contrary to what the Government intended, and that if we paid the full fee there would be no more question about the use of a trade plate than an ordinary plate, and he promised to have the Act amended. It was amended by adding to the clause, "in or for the purpose of his business," which was thought would give us a use sufficiently wide to make it practicable. It went along all right for a few months, until the police took notice. Since then and up till the present time dealers have been continually in trouble for the use of these plates. It has been decided in Court that the use of a dealer's plate on Sunday, although it does not contravene this Act, is a breach of the Police Offences Act, because if a man is charged with the use of a dealer's plate he must plead under the Act that he was using it for the purposes of his business, and to do business on Sunday is illegal. The use of these plates, therefore, has become very aggravating, and really of very little practical use. We have approached the Government on this occasion, and also all the executive officers, who are of opinion, as they were before, that if we paid the full fee the use of a trade plate should be no more restricted than the use of an ordinary plate. We could do away with the dealers' plates simply by paying the £2 as we do, get an individual registration for the car, and use it under that number. There is nothing to prevent us doing that, although it would cost us 55., when we sold a car, to transfer it to another. It us not for the sake of that fee of ss. that we wish to retain the dealers' plates, but because if it were said that it is impossible to use them it would have far-reaching effects. In the first place —and this is one of the main reasons why the trade is anxious to retain the dealers' plates —if a. man buys a new car it means a great thing to him that he is registered as the