SPEED LIMIT IN KAIAPOI.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20524, 18 April 1932, Page 13

SPEED LIMIT IN KAIAPOI.

TO THE EDITOR Off THK PRESS. ' Sir, —Your correspondent "One of His \ ictims" admits in his somewhat belated explanation of an absurdity that the "raison d'etre" may have been due to his own carelessness. I find myself quite able to accept this as an explanation in view of the fact that a iurther carelessness of expression is apparent in tho letter which appears in to-day s Pniiss—a letter containing r, plenty of argument with a conspicuous absence of reason. In my letter of the 11th inst. I stated that your correspondent must be a notoriously bad driver if he is unable - to maintain a set speed (within two or y. three m.p.h) for a distance of approximately one mile without keeping one eje on his speedometer. To pervert this 1 statement to mean that anybody but 1 a bad driver Could maintain speeds of B "0, 25, and 30 m.p.h. for one mile without the use of any instrument is a further absurdity which can hardly on this occasion bo explained as an error on ■ the part of your printer, but must be 3 the result of either a deliberate misconi ception or lack of knowledge. Assuming j the latter to be the correct explanation (to take the more charitable view) I W'ould explain for the enlightenment of your correspondent that the word "set" means to regulate or adjust; thore- * I ore :i Ki»fc speed would mean, as I intended it should, a regulated or adjusted speed, which could only be ar- ' rived at by the use of an instrument. • To maintain for one mile any given speed when ascertained by a .judicious ■ elevation or depression of the accel- . erator it would only be i ecessarv for anyone but a notoriously bad driver to maintain a more or less even pressure on the accelerator for a period of time dependent on the rate being travelled. I say a "more or less" even pressure having regard to the allowance of two ' or three m.p.h. in the maintenance of _ any set speed, and therefore when driving through Kaiapoi at a speed in keep- ; ing with the regulations a range of from IS to 22 m.p.h. would be allowable. 1 rofusc to believe that the traffic inspector, whom your correspondent admits to be a fair-minded man, 1 would prosecute anyone exceeding the limit by two or even fm.c m.p.h., and in this connexion it would be interesting to loam at what speed "One of His Victims" was travelling when caught by tho inspector. If your correspondent is unable to accomplish what is evidently considered by him to be a difficult feat, i.e., the maintenance of a set or adjusted speed of 20 m.p.h., without driving negligently and to the public danger, then I would suggest to him that he expend any spare pounds at his disposal on a few lessons from a competent instructor, and a passage through Kaiapoi would not then present arty difficulties or cause any apprehensions. The two concluding paragraphs of your correspondent's letter do not require any comment on my part, as they liavo been fully answered in the first place by Mr Macintosh and in the second by "Counsel for the Defendant." —Yours, etc., L. W. BROADIIEAD. April IGth, 1032. [A re-examination of his manuscript showed that tho error "One of His Victims" offered to take on liinlself was ours and not his.—Ed. The Press."]