Droving by-law not unanimous

Press, 24 September 1983, Page 7

Droving by-law not unanimous

Wellington reporter New Zealand at last has a model by-law for droving stock on roads, after the first moves were made as long ago as 1925. But the by-law approved by the National Roads

Board was only gained in the teeth of opposition from the Automobile Association and the Road Carriers’ Association. It would be better to have no by-law at all than the one approved, said the Carriers’ Association representative on the board, Mr W. W. Knox.

When moves were taken to get a by-law in the 1920 s it was found to be impossible to get agreement. Finally, the Automobile Association and the then National Drovers’ Association reached agreement between themselves on a code of practice.

This became accepted practice for many years but with the increasing speed of traffic and increasing prevalence of sealed roads

droving became an issue again. In 1978, the National Roads Board began to draft a model by-law which gave territorial local authorities control of droving on State highways running through their district as well as for local roads. Several drafts have been discussed during the last five years, but the Automobile Association, Road Carriers’ Association, Counties’ Association, Federated Farmers, Ministry of Transport, and Ministry of Works were never able to agree to a final version.

A four-part resolution was adopted by the board at its September meeting which:

© Approves the model bylaw to control the movement of stock on State highways

® Delegates to all local authorities power to control the movement of stock on State highways within their territorial areas.

® Asks the Municipal Association and Counties’ Association to advise their members that they should now proceed to make bylaws.

©Notes that where local authorities fail to make bylaws it may become necessary for the board to make by-laws for them. The Automobile Association’s representative on the board, Mr F. R. M. Parkinson, described the model bylaw as “tremendously disappointing.” “It is nothing like the bylaw we first sought more than five years ago,” he said.

The sections on what to do about “grievous damage” to roading had been deleted

altogether, the maximum penalty had been cut from 5500 to 5200, and there were other matters left out too. But the worst aspect of the model by-law was that there was no control over small mobs, Mr Parkinson said.