DRUNKEN DRIVERS

Press, Volume LXXV, Issue 22804, 1 September 1939, Page 12

DRUNKEN DRIVERS

Power of Arrest For Inspectors GENERA!/ APPROVAL OP BILL (From Our Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, August 31. The claim that there could be no disagreement with the clauses designed to curtail: the activities of drunken drivers was made by the Minister for Transport (the Hon. R. Semple) when moving the second reading of the Transport Law Amendment Bill in the House of Representatives to-night. “There were 685 convictions,for being drunk in charge of motor-vehicles last year,” Mr Semple said, “and I want to ask why should 30 persons die in a year because somebody, wants to gets boozed and take the wheel of a motorcar?" The bill gave traffifi'officers power to arrest drunken motorists, he, continued. It also forba'de the use of liquor in a public motor vehicle. The Rt. Hon. J. G.- Coates (Opposition, Kaipara): Can’t a man take a bottle of beer home in a bus? Mr Semple: Yes. But he can’t give an exhibition of how he can get rid of it when he is in a public motorvehicle. “I am satisfied that 90 per cent, of the people in this country will support that,” Mr Semple/ continued. “As for the power of atrest, we are doing it at present, but we have not the legal right. An officer can pull a man up, and ask him to go to a police station, but a man may refuse. We are not going to give our inspectors batons, handcuffs, or revolvers, and we are not going to have scuffles in the street.” , m An Opposition member: Then how are you going to make arrests? Mr. Semple: If a man refuses to accompany an officer to a police station, he will be able to be prosecuted for resisting arrest. He cannot be to-day, but this measure will bring him within the scope cf the law. The Minister spoke at length concerning the evils associated with drunken drivers, and said that while he was Minister for Transport he would do all in his power to put these potential murderers off the road. This portion of his speech was punctuated by frequent calls of “Hear, hear” from, both sides of the House. MINISTER PRAISED WORK IN MAKING ROADS SAFE [From Our Parliamentary Reporter.] WELLINGTON, August 31. No Minister for Transport in New Zealand had done more for the public in roads than the present Minister (the Hon. R. Semple), said Mr F. W. Scßramm (Government, Auckland East) when speaking on the second reading, of the Transport Law Amendment Bill in the House of Representatives to-night. Mr Semple had made roads, so far as he could, safe for the public and the motoring public, Mr Schramm 1 said, and had done his best to protect citizens against accidents on the highways. , . ... Mr Schramm said: We have m this , country;a declared war on pedestrians on the' hig&Pßys. We have people driving motorrCara' who have injured people for-life, and who have sent others to an early grave. It is going on unceasingly. I have seen some terrible cases of mutilation. Some people say that the law is too stringent; but I submit that no man can take even one drink while driving a motor-car. Drink even in small quantities impairs a man’s judgment.” Expressing approval of the provision prohibiting the suppression of names of offenders convicted of intoxication in charge of motor-cars, Mr Schramm quoted the view of an eminent jurist that publicity was the very soul of justice. There had been cases of intoxication where justices had dealt with motorists, AWT;had suppressed a name, where it had been said that influence and power and wealth had caused that. He did not say that that was so; but there should not be a semblance of a suggestion of that sort of thing. ■