SEVERAL WEEKS AGO his mother had forwarded the notice from the Commonwealth. It informed him, bluntly, that he had 19 days in which to pay the overdue excise tax for 1967 on his "BHW--1955-250cc." He thought he'd paid it last February, but the cancelled check was nowhere in the litter of his records, so here he was in the City Treasurer's Office.

"Hi! I talked with someone on the phone yesterday about an overdue excise tax..."

"Oh yes. Well, you want to see Mr. Tierney; he's the Deputy."

The Deputy emerged from behind a frosted glass partition. He looked at the notice, looked at a list, did a less-than-lightning mental calculation, and issued his pronouncement, "Well, to clear things up, you'll have to give me $9.03, plus a $1 filing fee to the Registrar."

"What! The notice says an excise of $2.00."

"'Plus interest and fees as prescribed by law...'We sent you out three notices before this one, and that's..."

"Listen, would you please check and make sure I didn't send you the tax? I couldn't find the cancelled check, but I was certain I'd sent it." (Christ. Evidently the amount of the excise was added to your bill every time they sent you a notice!)

He waddled back toward what appeared to be a vault and went in. About five minutes later the vault disgorged him. As he came back to the window, "Deputy" was clutching two of those damn blue forms.

"Well, son, it seems you failed to pay on two vehicles. To clear things up it will cost you, let's see, $19,35, plus two $1 fees at the Registry."

"WHAT!" That blast jolted the entire secretarial staff; probably the first time in weeks they were all awake at once. Visibly restrained, then, "Would you please explain to me how that figure is computed? I get the uncomfortable feeling I'm being taken for a ride."

Hold it! We don't take nobody for a ride here, that's just the tax that's been figgered for you, and if you don't want to pay it..."

"Listen, when I've got to pay that much for a lousy excise on a cycle, I figure I've already bought an explanation of why it's so high."

"We sent you three notices to 28 Roseland Street on this one, and three notices there on the other; then one to your home address, the one you brought in. This one you registered in July of 1967, and this one..."

"Yes, and I sold it and transferred the registration from it to the other one I got in August. Then I moved out of 28 Roseland Street in September, and I never received any of the notices you sent to me there."

"Well, that's not our fault."