HOLIDAY MOTOR MISHAPS

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21977, 29 December 1936, Page 8

HOLIDAY MOTOR MISHAPS

—« — MINISTER'S STATEMENT "WE HAVE NOT GONE FAR ENOUGH" (PRESS ASSOCIATION TELEGRAM.) WELLINGTON, December 28. "These tragedies prove beyond all doubt that we have not yet gone far i enough," ?aid the Minister for Transport (the Hon. R. Semple), commenting on Christmas holiday motor accidents. "I am determined during the next session of Parliament to tighten up the law further, particularly the section relating to driving tests. A large number of people now on the roads are unfitted to drive. The majority of accidents are due either to carelessness cr incompetence, and I am determined to remedy this state of affairs." Mr Semple said that the law-abiding New Zealander who drove a mechanically efficient car and obeyed the laws of the highway to the best of his ability, showing consideration for his fellow motorists, had every right to receive protection from carelessness, recklessness, and inefficiency. •'And, as Minister for Transport. I am going to give it to him," Mr Semple added. He said he had a bill drafted which would bring directly under the Transport Department the responsibility of all towns and boroughs with a population of under six thousand—all except metropolitan areas. Official part-time inspectors would disappear under the bill, added the Minister. Fines and license fees amounting to about £30,000 yearly would form the nucleus of a fund to maintain a body of inspectors to patrol the roads efficiently and enforce the law. That so many accidents had already occurred during the holidays, in spite of the new legislation and other measures taken, was alarming.