BAITING THE MOTORIST

Manawatu Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 3491, 29 October 1926, Page 11

BAITING THE MOTORIST

A PRIMITIVE I’OLIUY. Over ten thousand persons were prosecuted in New Zealand last year tor breaches of traffic regulations. The convictions totalled 9993. Most of the. offenders wore motorists whose trespasses, generally speaking, were trivial. For the same period in the London Metropolitan Police area, with about six times the population of this Dominion, there were, 13,024 convictions of motorists. The comparison proves that traffic administrators in this by-law-ridden country have lost all sense of proportion, and, in a frenzy of zeal, have developed a pernicious practice of baiting the motorist. It is not surprising that the harrassed victims of a primitive policy of motor-traffic control protect against the manner jn which they arc baited and the penalties inflicted upon them even for insignificant breaches of regulation. Their resentment is justified. The prosecution of motorists in Now Zealand has become something like an administrative scandal. It is an orgy of harsh control. Reasonable bylaws appear to be strained unreasonably time, and again for easy revenue, and much 100 frequently on a scale out of all proportion to the character of the offence. There is no doubt that those in control of motor traffic have developed a prosecution complex and arc giving it free rein. They should make an effort to recover wisdom.