THE MOTOR CRAZE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 233, 29 September 1908, Page 4

THE MOTOR CRAZE.

The motor contest in the Isle of Man —the only portion of the United Kingdom, by the way, where there is no legal speed limit—has not unnaturally | revived the strong demonstrations of popular feeling which have from time to time broken out at Home within the past three or four years. The plain fact is that motor racing of this kind is not only an exceedingly dangerous but a thoroughly useless form of sport. Air. Harvey dv Cros, who has been engaged in motor-making and driving ever since the industry came to England, has declared in the "Times" that these highspeed exhibitions, as they encourage an entirely useless type of car, are distinctly disadvantageous to the motor business. At the same time, he considers that these high-speed cars have reached a point "not only outside the laws of safety, but against the instincts of humanity." The recent appalling accidents on the Brooklands course have evoked a chorus of horrified comment from every section of the public. But the casual manslaughter by which these high-speed contests are diversified and rendered even more sensational than by the phenomenal pace of the ears is not by any means the only ground of complaint against the motor-maniacs. They have carried danger and destruction to every corner of the three kingdoms. They are ruining the roads, choking the air with dust, and defiling it with poisonous fumes, and destroying most of the comfort and seclusion of rural life, while rendering the beautiful country lanes in England and Scotland and Wales absolutely unsafe to foot passengers. Fines have no effect upon the motor-maniac. The "Times" quotes a recent case in which a £20 fine was inflicted on a person already convicted five times of the saie offence. Another "Times" correspondent asserts that the brutal selfishness of these offences, and the arrogant contempt they display for the rights of others, is hardening public opinion to a point at which nothing will satisfy the people bat the absolute prohibition of motoring on the public highway. And even motor enthusiasts must admit that in the interests of public safety and morality it is high time that these sanguinary mile-a-minute contests should be stopped, and that some effective restriction should be placed on the speed of cars using the public roads.