DRUNKEN' DRIVERS

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26263, 7 November 1950, Page 3

DRUNKEN' DRIVERS

PRISON HELD TO BE DETERRENT DUNEDIN MAGISTRATE’S VIEW (New Zealand Press Association) DUNEDIN, November 6. The two Dunedin magistrates decided several years ago that drivers who were convicted by them on counts of being intoxicated in charge of motor-vehicles would at all times be sent to prison unless there were special circumstances. This attitude, according to a statement b3 r Mr J. D. Willis. S.M., in the Magistrate’s Court this morning, has reduced the incidence of drunken drivers. . Replying to a statement by counsel, Mr R. J. Gilbert, that an accused in another <;ity had been granted probation after four or five previous convictions for similar offences, the Magistrate said: “You can hardly hold us responsible for that.” He added that the Dunedin magistrates had adopted' an attitude when dealing with this type of case and did not intend to recede from it, although it was recognised that each case must be decided on its merits. The offence had come to be a very unpopular pastime. Only one inference could be drawn from the decline, and that was that the punishment had had the desired effect.