TO PREVENT ROAD TERRORISM.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 140, 10 December 1909, Page 7

TO PREVENT ROAD TERRORISM.

The furious driving and riding of motor-cars and cycles was again mentioned at the meeting of the Makara County Council to-day. Last month a deputation of the council waited on the Minister of Internal Affairs, asking for legislation "to relieve the people from the terrorism they have to endure from the furious driving of somo motor-cars, and the reckless riding of many motor cyclists." The Minister replied that' local authorities had practically unlimited powers in making and enforcing bylaws to deal with the difficulty. To adopt the proposal would mean taking from local bodies a very unpopular duty and laying it upon the Government. He could not approve of that at all. There would also be very many difficulties in the way of administering a general Act such as would be necessary. The chairman of the council, at the meeting to-day, expressed the opinion that Mr. Buddo's 'reply was a direct encouragement and incentive to motor-car and cycle people to drive at any pace on country roads. He thought it was a matter for Government legislation to apply to the whole Dominion. The recklessness of drivers still continued, and only the other day a motor cyclist scattered a mob of sheep at Ngahauranga, and the owner had not been able to recover fourteen of them. A correspondent at Oxford, Canterbury, wrote to the council to-day, expressing the hope that some effectual action would be taken in the matter. He characterised Mr. Buddo's reply to the council as of the weakest, for the law should be one and the same throughout the Dominion. Some member of Parliament should be approached, with a view of having a Bill brought in, and as there was no question of party in the matter, it ought not to be difficult to got a Public Highways Safety Act through Parliament.