J.P. LENIENCY

Evening Star, Issue 22685, 26 June 1937, Page 11

J.P. LENIENCY

THE DRUNKEN DRIVER MINISTER WARNS JUSTICES [Per United Press Association.] CHRISTCHURCH, June 25. It seems that the only option left to me as Minister of Transport in my endeavours to make the highways and byways as safe as possible by getting rid of the drunken driver is to amend the law so that judgments of this hind cannot he given by justices of the peace,” said Mr Semple to-day in. commenting on the decision of two. justices in the Blenheim case in which a motorist pleaded guilty to a charge of intoxication while in charge of a car. The justices fined, the offender £5 and granted an application for the suppression of his name. “ It is another demonstration, and a glaring one,” said Air Semple, “ of the leniency with which some J.P.s view cases of drunken drivers brought before them. A magistrate would never have handled this case in such a way, and the court records prove that beyond all doubt. This man was fined a paltry £5 without his license being endorsed, and His name was suppressed. Suppression of the name, to my mind, is nothing more or less than discrimination and a miscarriage of justice. It should not take place in administering the law in serious cases where public life is at stake. Where any man who gets intoxicated takes charge of a oar and is brought before the court the people of New Zealand should know who that man is. Publication of his name is the greatest deterrent against him doing (t again. It is not the fine so much as the exposure that prevents him doing it again.” Mr Semple said he had issued a warning to the justices, and it seemed that they took no notice of it. “ Let me repeat,” he added, “that 175 innocent New Zealand persons have lost their Hvs in the past seven years through drunken drivers. During the same period 2,500 motorists were convicted in the courts on charges of being drunk in charge of motor vehicles.”