CRUELTY TO ANIMALS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXII, Issue 127, 30 May 1901, Page 2

CRUELTY TO ANIMALS.

CTo the Editor.)

Sir, —Once more I must ask your kind assistance in drawing attention to the overcrowding of 'buses. On Saturday last I was a most unwilling witness to some of the worst cases I have seen since I came to Auckland. It was, as most of your readers are aware, race day at Takapuna, North Shore. I was a passengers by Lake 'bus, and it stopped to wait for passengers at the ! racecourse gates. The crowd were pouring out, hurrying to the boat, and traps of all kinds were in waiting to take them there They crammed into the waiting vehicles, standing, hanging on, anywhere ans anyhow, and I never heard a single protest uttered by one of the drivers, or by the; policeman on guard at the gates. We have received letters from most of the "bus proprietors saying that it is not their wish that their vehicles should be overcrowded, and.also stating that their drivers have strict orders not to allow it.1 It seems to us that a man who deliberately disobeyed orders ought to receive his dismissal, and we feel sure under any other circumstances this would take place. Why in the name of common sense is not the traffic of Auckland controlled by the police, as in all other cities? It is perfectly ridiculous to expect one man to be able to do it all. How can he be in more than one place at a rime? The police are all over the. city, and from my experience of their firmness and courtesy I have more faith in them than in any semi-private individual appoint■ed by the Council, or any other body. There is also another way to look at it. An inspector of this kind is often set at open defiance by the drivers, who drive on and pretend not to see him; and supposing that he should see one of the city magnates in the position of overcrowding a 'bus or tram it is manifestly hopeless (sad though it is to confes? it., to expect him to quarrel with his bread and butter by reporting that man as he should do. T have seen the policeman stop a tram in Dunedin when it was not anything like as overcrowded as ours are (and besides the gradients are not so steep. Like sensible and humane people, they have had cable trams up the hills there for many years) and the constable has taken the namies and commanded the offending passengers to get out of the trains frequently, and they have done so quietly and without toss. What can be done in other places can be done here,—l am, etft,

E. M. STA3BLAM. CoccmfcM' Jutudtt iratfclaad, ••*■