CONTROL OF TRAFFIC.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19405, 13 August 1926, Page 13

CONTROL OF TRAFFIC.

POSITION IN WELLINGTON. WITHDRAWAL OF THE POLICE, MATTER OF FUTURE SCHEME. [BY TELEGRAPH.—SPECIAL REPORTER.] WELLINGTON. Thursday. For months past the question of the future basis of' traffic control in the city —by the police, by the corporation, or a continuance of the present unsatisfactory system of dual control—has been before the Wellington City Council in a more or less informal manner. Negotiations were to have been entered into between the Mayor and the Commissioner of Police, but so far no definite report has been made to the council and no decision has been reached. There is little time for further consideration for tho Commissioner of Police has given notice of the intention of the department to decline to carry on upon the same terms for another period upon the expiry of the agreement at the end of this month. Whether the council will follow the Auckland Council's decision to control traffic with its own staff is uncertain. The Wellington inspectors are much less numerous than those in Auckland and if a similar course is decided upon it is certain that fnore men will have to be employed. The agreement with the police provides for four pointsmen only at the corners of Lambton Quay and Willis Street, Willis Street and Manners Street, Manners Street and Cuba Street and at Courtcnay Place, tho last-named intersection being the last to receive long overdue supervision. Tho Police Department also provides a motor-cyclist patrolman for the maintenance of common stense among motorists upon the Hutt Road. For theso services the corporation pays something over £IOOO a year. It is the firm conviction of aldiost every motorist, and of pedestrians, too, that more pointsmen are badly needed in the city—at. Queen's Wharf gates, a danger point complained of for years, in Post Office Square, and at the -junction of Taranaki and Dixon Streets with Courtenay Place. This last-named point is especially dangerous and the marvel t>f it is that accidents are not of almost daily occurrence there. Bus traffic has complicated the position very greatly and yevy quickly and during the rush from » little before 5 to 6 o'clock this intersection is very congested. Pointsmen at present go off duty at 6 o'clock, but drivers of cars and buses carry on long after that hour, and this aspect of control will also, no doubt, be discussed when the' agreement is eventually under consideration.