RIGHT-HAND RULE

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25548, 16 July 1948, Page 3

RIGHT-HAND RULE

DUNEDIN DISCUSSION MAGISTRATE’S REMARKS NOT CORRECTLY REPORTED Discussion on *the right-hand traffic rule at' a meeting of the Automobile Association (Otago), reported in a Press Association message published in “The Press’’ yesterday, was based on an incorrect report of a magistrate’s remarks in Dunedin. This was made clear yesterday by Mr P. F. Harre, secretary of the Automobile Association (Otago), in a telephone interview with “The Press.” “The case mentioned was reported in an evening newspaper on June 28, and concerned traffic approaching a main road,” said Mr Harre. “The report of this case gave it that Mr H. W. Bundle. S.M., said a certain thing, and the way his remarks were expressed in the report gave the impression that opinion on the righthand rule was misleading. “The Magistrate has been consulted, and he states that he has not been correctly reported. The report of his remarks was condensed, and in the condensation another interpretation was placed on what he said. “Mr Bundle’s actual remarks were: ‘There is an old rule laid down by Lord Dunedin in a well-known case, in which he stated in effect: “I know of no rule of good driving more important than that a driver coming on to a main road should look and give way to traffic coming in either direction.” This statement of the law has been modified or altered by the passing of the right-hand rule in New Zealand, but it still remains a good rule for a good driver to follow.’ ‘•The position is that there has been some misconception because the newspaper report seemed to convey that a driver on a main road had absolute right-of-way. It is possible now that the remit which my association was to have sent to the annual conference of the South Island Motor Union may be dropped.”