The Hawera Star SATURDAY, AUGUST 24, 1935. PAYING FOR SAFETY.

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 24 August 1935, Page 4

The Hawera Star

SATURDAY, AUGUST 24, 1935. PAYING FOR SAFETY.

Delivered every evening Dy o o clock in Hawera, Manaia, Kaupokonui, Otakeho, Oeo, Pibama, Opunake. Eithain, tig acre Mangatoki, Kaponga, Awatuna. Te Km. Mahoe, Lowgarth, Manutabi, Kakara m ea, Alton. Hurleyville. Patea, Wtaenua kura, Waverley, Mokoia, Wbakamara. Ohangai. Meremere, Fraser Road and Ararata-

The North Island Motor Union is to be congratulated upon its decision to inaugurate a Dominionwide safety first campaign spread over a number of years. Its £70,000 scheme may appear ambitious, but when the increasingdeath and injury rate from motor accidents is remembered, an expenditure from £7OOO to £IO,OOO a year—a seven-to ten years’ programme is contemplated—cannot, by any stretch of the imagination be regarded as extravagant. Several motoring organisations have already agreed to contribute to the -fund and it is anticipated that insurance companies handlingmotor accident risks will agree that contributions will prove a good investment from a straightout commercial point of view. A certain amount of support is certain to be forthcoming from various sections of the motor trade and the Government is to be asked for a£sto £1 subsidy. It is the application for a Government subsidy which may give rise to controversy, but here again the motor accident statistics should prove a very convincing argument in support of an application for State support of a continuous plan of public education- in the principles of road safety. Mr Batt, the sponsor of the pan, told the conference that last year 182 persons met their deaths and 7000 suffered varying degrees of injury as a result of motor car accidents. If the expenditure of money on a comprehensive propaganda campaign will reduce such a heavy annual loss of life in this underpopulated country, there will be surely few persons who will contend that there is no justification for a State subsidy. The State already maintains at great expense the machinery for punishing the wrong-doer on the road, blit no amount of punishment can compensate for the bereavement and wrecked happiness which follow death and - injury resulting from road accidents. There is, and always will be. a need for punishing criminal negligence, but the State will accomplish far more if it assist a plan designed to reduce the number of drivers and pedestrians who, through ignorance or disregard of commonsen.se safety rules, contribute to the annual ‘‘toll of the road.”