JUST LEGISLATION.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 134, 8 June 1936, Page 9

JUST LEGISLATION.

SUPERINTENDENT'S VIEW.

PUNISHMENT OF SELFISHNESS.

"As far as we can see from published reports, the proposed legislation does no more than make good some deficiencies that experience has revealed in the existing regulations," stated Mr. C. Bland, traffic superintendent of the Auckland Transport Board. "These have not been amended since 1033, since which time they have been thoroughly tested in practice, and found lacking in some minor respects."

Mr. Bland said that some local bodies had in their by-laws clauses similar in effect to those proposed in the present bill. The Auckland City Council had, for instance, licensed push bicycles for the past 20 years, but the provision in the present bill for the carrying of identifying marks on bicycles would certainly make the task of apprehending breakers of bv-laws easier.

"The City Council's by-law will, of course, be overridden by the provisions !of the present bill," stated. Mr. Bland. "In the past few years traffic by-laws had to have the approval of the Minister of Transport, and he could decline to approve by-laws that were in conflict with the regulations. Many local bodies have, however, traffic by-laws passed before the Minister's approval was necessary. The Auckland City Council has, I may say, brought its by-laws up to date by repealing those that were in conflict with the law."

Motorists who were given to speeding would be checked, Mr. Bland thought, by the fact that a second offence within three years carried a penalty of three months' suspension. Some motorists, he said, had four or five convictions in that period. Previously it was left to the discretion of the magistrate whether or not he would consider previous convictions.

"The punishment of careless, inconsiderate driving, as well as actually dangerous or negligent driving, is just," stated Mr. Bland. "Inconsiderate drivers are often the primary cause of accidents to others, in which they themselves are not involved. Cutting in and "hogging" the road would come under the provisions, and rightly so."