DRUNKEN DRIVERS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 7 December 1938, Page 7

DRUNKEN DRIVERS

WEEK-END GAOL SCHEME MOTOR UNION OPPOSITION “NO NEED FOR MR SEMPLE TO FEEL RESENTMENT” (United Presß Ansociar loi, I BLENHEIM, This Day. There is no need for Mr Semple to feel resentment,” declared Mr R. P. Furness, president of the Marlborough Automobile Association, when commenting on the Transport Minister’s response to S I Motor Union opposition at the Greymouth meeting to the weekend gaol scheme for drunken drivers. Mr Furness said he was actuated solely by a desire that the intoxicated motorist should suffer the utmost penalty. He felt the Minister’s desire to shield an offender’s family from suffering Is the weak point in the scheme. “The intoxicated driver has very little 'hought for the families of people he runs into, and if he thinks his own family have to share the penalty of his actions I consider it would probably be a greater deterrent than if he knows he alone has to suffer.” Mr Furness denied the Minister’s suggestion that in criticising he was sneering at the proposal. So far as week-end imprisonment was concerned, it was stated at the Greymouth meeting by Mr A. Grayson, acting-president of the N.1.M.U., that of the American States which originally adopted the practice all but two had since abandoned it. one of the reasons being that the ridicule to which the offenders were submitted had a detrimental psychological effect making the cure worse tnan the disease

(Earlier reference to the matter will be found on page 9 of this issue.)