DRIVING ROUND CORNERS.

Press, Volume L, Issue 8676, 28 December 1893, Page 3

DRIVING ROUND CORNERS.

TO THli KDITOB OF TUB rtIKS9. Sir, —I think it is about time that something was said on the question by oue who is not a blind, or cowardly, or conceited pedestrian, Up to the present this class of person has had things all hia oWn way, and as a result it is not worth auy man's while to drive through the streets of Christohurch. I merely wish to remark that tho by-laws regulating wheeled traffic simply prove tbe Christchurch pedestrian to be either tbe moat selfish or the most cowardly person in the world. This class of being thinks that he — and above all she — is alone entitled to make use of the public thoroughfare and acts accordingly. I may say that I have been riding and driving through Christchurch , for the hat twentyfive years and have never touched a pedestrian in that time; but I hesitate to say how many scores of fools hat c made frantiu and determined efforts to get under my wheels or horse's feet. These local pedestrians, Sir, are at once the meet hotplest and tho most conceited, the most selfish and the most cowardly beings alive. You have the doting parent, who crosses the street holding a child by the hand, bending over it and lavishing endearments on the brat. What matters it to such as tho-o that your horse's jaw is nearly fractured in avoiding running over them ? Nothing at all. And there are the gossiping old maids of both sexes who dawdle across the street, apparently trying to see how long they can be about it; and the light-headed idiots who adopt just the opposite course, and run backwards and forwards and jump about until it is just about impossible to get out of their way. All these people talk about the dangers of tbe Christchurch streets ; 1 would like to put them down in Cheapaido or Cornhill for a day. And then they get all sorts of fantastic laws passed. Weii, for the future I decline to drivo through town more than I can help. Tho storekeeper in the township will bs only too glad to supply mc and these Christchurch cockneys can have their town to themselves.-—Yours, Ac, Cockatoo.