PILLION-RIDING.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 165, 14 July 1928, Page 10

PILLION-RIDING.

BY-LAWS AND REGULATIONS. A MAGISTERIAL SUGGESTION. •MIGHT WELL BE RECONSIDERED." In delivering judgment at the Magistrate's Court yesterday in the pillionriding case, Mr. W. R. McKean, S.M., said the Auckland City Council might well reconsider the matter. Contending that the City Council by-law prohibiting pillion-riding was bad because it was inconsistent with the regulations under the Motor Vehicles Act, 1924, Leonard Coulthard, charged in the Magistrate's Court recently with pillon-riding in Grey's Avenue, pleaded not guilty. Mr. McKean reserved his decision. The magistrate said: "The regulations made it compulsory to provide footrests for every passenger, and there were other provisions requiring a passenger to ride astride of the machine and not in front of the driver. To carry one passenger on a motor cycle was therefore not an offence under the motor regulat.ioli». ihe regulations, however, did not iu expre>« term* .-uy that it. was lawful to carry a passenger; they merely said that if a pas-onger was carried certain provisions niu-t be observed. If the regulation provided that any person might be carried oil a motor cycle subject to the conditions prescribed, the by-law would be bad because it would make unlawful something which the regulations made lawful. "Sot RepUo- znt to Regulations." ''111 the present case the regulation fixes a definite and stated number as the maximum to he carried on a motor cycle, but this is not to make anything lawful; it is merely to make something unlawful,'' said Mr. McKean. "I am therefore of opinion that the by-law is not repugnant to the regulations, for it does not make unlawful something which the regulations make lawful. "With regard to the contention that such a by-law is not specially authorised under the regulations, Mr. liolmden contends there are provisions in the regulations safeguarding certain classes of by-laws, and that as no such provision is made with regard to a by-law of this particular class the by-law must be deemed to be bad. '1 think that the provisions to which Mr. liolmden refers were made not for the purpose of conferring upon local authorities a power to make by-law*, but for the purpose of safeguarding by-laws that might, in the absence oY such provisions, be considered repugnant to the regulations. No Penalty Imposed. "I considered some months ago the question of the reasonableness of the by-law, and decided that it could not be held to bo bad on the ground that it was unreasonable. I thought thats uch a by-law could be quite reasonable if its application were limited to some of the busiest streets in the city, but I could not find the by-law bad because my own views differed from those of the control ling authority. Now that the regulations make express provisions for case.; in which passengers are carried 011 motor cycles, I think that the t'ity Council might well consider the matter again."

The defendant was convicted without penalty, it having been explained earlier that the City Council had brought the prosecution merely as a test case. By request, the magistrate fixed security for appeal at £10 10/.