JOY-RIDING

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 143, 18 June 1924, Page 8

JOY-RIDING

A STDNJ^T PROBLEM. • fFROM OBR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) ■: SYDNEY, 10th June. To take a., motor-car which may bo standing in' the street out of the possession of its owner, and to indulge in joyriding, at the owner's expense, is ■ not stealing, according, to a Court decision /here, as long as the. intention is to return it. The question is : How long ia the joy-rider entitled to keep the car ■without being a.thief in the eyes of the law? Almost every day in Sydney one reads of cars being whisked away and not infrequently.found Inter in a damaged condition; the joy-riders, having knocked the cars about, simply cast them aside. The position is accentuated by the .fact that the joy-riders, incompetent very often to handle a car, are a source of grave danger to others :on the road. The whole thing has become such a scandal that Parliament is being urged, in the interests alike of common honesty and public safety; to pass legislation making, the illegal use of cars,'if not theft m the eyes of the Jaw, something equally serious. Tho point is' urged that ir the joy-rider cannot be dealt wi*i as a common thief there-should be a law equally effective for shoving him the error of his ways under -some other name. It is obvious that until the law> is applied more rigorously a lot of highspirited young fellows will continue to regard the motor-car as the average person regards an umbrella-something winch, by % morality, or immorality, of society, one. can takeaway with indif'