Illustrated Scraps.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIV, Issue 179, 29 July 1903, Page 9 (Supplement)

Illustrated Scraps.

The ralcetnt ""'motor massacre ,,, in France, and the numerous accidents which daily occur in England through furious anci careless driving on the part uf motorists has brought motoring into such disfavour that one is hardly surprised to see suggestions for reprisals on the furious driving fraternity finding their way into print. But it has been left for Sir Ralph Payne-Gallwey to suggest that, pedestrians shall be given the legal right to take pot shots at all motorists who may appear to them to be

driA'ing to the common danger, and for Mr W. S. Gilbert and a "Daily Graphic" artist to cover Sir Ralph with ridicule for his obsolutely insane suggestion. .Mr Gilbert, in a letter to the "Times," expresses his delight with Sir Fialph's notion, and, after suggesting that the shot shall be humanely restricted to jN t o. 8 or No. 9, says: "Not only Avould this proA r ide a speedy and eflfectiA-e punishment for the erring motorist, but it Avould also supply the dwellers on popular high roads Avith a comfortable increase of in-

come. 'Motor shooting for a single gun' would appeal strongly to the sporting instincts of the (rue Briton, and Avould provide ample compensation to the proprietors of eligible roadside properties for the intolerable annoyance caused by the cnemios of mankind. The only difficulty that occurs to me is as to who shall undertake the rather delicate job of stopping Viic motor (tearing nlo'ng at perhaps thirty-five or forty miles an hour) after the motorist has been killed or disabled."

The "Daily Graphic" artist depicts three scenes. The first, where a costermonger, whose cart an<i '"donah" and donkey have been sent spraAvling by a motor, is taking a retaliatory pot-shot at its occupants; the second, where the mo-tor battue has become a populaT suburban sport: and the third depicting the discomfiture of the sportsmen by the arrival , on the scene of armour-cla4 motors, AAiiose ocewpants are grinning at the chagrined gunners through thick plate-glass port-holes..