H—4o

The examination of new drivers, the retesting of persons over seventy years of age, and those who have failed to renew former licences continue to occupy a great deal of time, and this year over 29,000 persons were examined. The following table indicates the number of drivers tested in the four districts : District. Total. Auckland .. .. .. .. 10,155 Wellington .. .. .. .. 8,029 Christchurch .. .. .. .. 6,670 Dunedin .. .. .. .. 4,574 Total .. .. .. 29,428 Full use has been made of the forty-nine sets of loadometers operated by the traffic staff, and 4,380 vehicles have been weighed in rural districts. A close check is kept on the weight of loads as well as the speed of these vehicles. The volume of traffic during the year has been at a high level, and at race meetings and special functions record crowds have been handled. In the North Island the use of inter-car radio has been of great value when controlling heavy traffic volume, while its use has been of assistance in apprehending traffic offenders and calling medical aid where injured persons were concerned. At the end of the year twenty-five cars were equipped with two-way radio. Dominion-wide campaigns-were made against defective brakes and wrongly adjusted lights in an effort to keep vehicles at a high standard of efficiency, and prosecutions were authorized in the worst cases, particularly where drivers failed to dip lights when likely to cause embarrassment to other road-users. The enforcement staff is responsible for the supervision of the petrol-rationing scheme and is required to check the records kept by resellers of petrol. F. TRAFFIC OFFENCES During the year 11,116 offences were reported by Traffic Inspectors ; of this number, 6,222 were prosecuted and the remaining 4,894 were entered as warnings and offenders warned accordingly. Convictions were entered in 6,073 instances, 88 cases were dismissed, and the remaining 61 withdrawn. The increase of 899 offences is largely accounted for by the additional vehicles registered and a tightening-up on overloading and speeding offences by heavy motor-vehicles. In addition to the 4,894 offences where written warnings were forwarded, the traffic staff report that 48,858 persons were warned verbally on the road.

The following schedule shows comparative figures relating to the number of traffic offences reported over the last six years:—

Tables 15 to 17 in the Appendix show the nature of offences resulting in convictions during the year ended 31st March, 1949, together with a summary of speeding offences for the years 1945-46 to 1948-49 inclusive, and information relating to traffic offence notices issued in each of the four districts administered by the Department.

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Year Ended 31st March, Offences Reported. Prosecuted. Convicted. Dismissed. Withdrawn. Warned. Percentage of Warnings. Pines Recorded. 1944 5,288 3,491 3,338 74 » 79 1,797 34 £ 5,275 1945 7,341 4,803 4,598 76 129 2,538 35 6,923 1946 10,650 6,467 6,288 69 110 4,183 39 8,498 1947 10,123 5,456 5,303 80 73 4,667 46 8,288 1948 10,217 5,303 5,171 82 ! 50 4,914 48 9,312 1949 11,116 6,222 6,073 88 I 61 4,894 44 10,903