PETTY OFFENCES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20088, 27 October 1928, Page 12 (Supplement)

PETTY OFFENCES.

FINES WHICH FAIL.

Tho Auckland Automobilo Association has drawn attention to tho futility of the laborious processes of prosecution for trivial offences. A great number of prosecutions have no value as a deterrent, and nothing is achieved by convicting tho motorist, which could not be attained by a courteous warning Tad-lamp failures aro an example. Every motorist agrees that a rear light is necessary, and that ruby reflectors aro more or less worthless. No driver can control tha life of an electric lamp, and a failing in the street cannot bo prevented. It is against the principles of justice to punish a mail for something beyond his control, but fines for tail-lamp failures aro certainly penalties for an accident, which all reasonable precaution cannot prevent. A warning legardiiig tail-lamp failure should suffice. As an alternative, tho motorist should liavc the opportunity of calling ai the polico or traffic offices and paying a flat-rate fine. Hundreds of motorists aro fined annually in Auckland for lamp failures. Tha penalty is invariably 10s, with 9s costs. These flat-rate fines could bo more satisfactorily collected without court procedure Systems of " spot fines have given satisfaction to traffic authorities and motorists in various parts of tho world. Tho polico of Great Britain recently received instructions to issue warnings for first trivial offences. A year's trial of this will be given, and no doubt it will be found that motorists appreciate tho correctivo and helpful attitude. A HUGE BUS FLEET. Tho Birmingham Corporation operates 219 buses and 16 trackless trolley buses, tho largest municipal fleet in Great Britain. Tho report for tho year ended last March shows that tho 219 busos carried 62,353,000 passengers. Tho revenue was £466,335 and operating costs totalled £335,604, or 11.6 d a mile exclusive of incomo tax, interest, and sinking fund charges. Receipts averaged 16.1 d a mile. Tho gross profit on tho running of the petrol buses was £130,731, and the total net profit of tho wholo undertaking was £256,585. HISTORY OF RUBBER. The great rubber plantations of tho East aro tho offspring of an idea of the botanist, Sir Joseph D. Hooker, who was director of tho Botanic Gardens, Kew, from 1855 to 1885. Sir Joseph was always on tho lookout for " some now thing" that would bo a bonefit to his nation and her colonics, a search ho prosecuted through his assistants in many parts of tho world. In 1873 ho persuaded the India Office to send out to the Amazon James Collins, who obtained hundreds of seeds of Para rubber, and on his return published an account of tho method of collecting and preparing tho rubber. About a dozen plants were raised at Kew from his seeds, and were sent to Calcutta, but the climate was unsuitable, and they all died. Two other men were then employed—Mr. Cross and H. A. Wickham, now Sir 11. A. Wickham.

Mr. Wickham, in 1876, ascended the Tapajos River and collected seeds. Other explorers must havo seen tho wild Para rubber tree— Hcvpa Brasiliensis—growing in tropical luxurianco in the jungles of Brazil; and tho value of its product had for centuries been dimly appreciated hv tho South American Indians. It remained for Cross and Wickham to attempt tho experiment of transplantation, and they were under no illusion as to the odds against its success. Tho seed of the wild rubber tree quickly loses its vitality: within about seven weeks of tho day it drops it becomes sterile.

Wickham had collected 70,000 of these seeds, but ho was far from the coast, and he knew ho would havo to travel his hardest " against tho clock" if a single one of them, was to germinate at Kew As quickly as ho could he worked down the Tapajos toward its mouth, all the timo tantalised by tho probability that he would not find a ship when ho reached there, and that every seed might bo dead before ho could get afloat. But his luck was propitious. A British " tramp" had just discharged her cargo. It required all the persuasiveness that Wickham could command to con vinco tho captain that 70,000 seeds ii> threo boxes represented tho cargo ho was looking for. Tho ship, with its precious burden, worked down to Para, where it had to pass the scrutiny of tho customs officers. Without any great violence to truth, Wickharn called his seeds " botanical specimens," and tho tramp received a clearance that would never havo been given it had tho customs men known what it ready contained. Immediately ho reached homo Wickham rushed to Kew, where Sir Joseph Hooker had houses cleared m * hurry, and soil prepared for tho reception of tho seeds. They arrived just in timo. Four per cent, germinated satisfactorily, and soon—for the rubber plant rapidly—specimens were on tho way to Calcutta, Ceylon, Rangoon and Singapore. In spito of tho care lavished upon them, all but seven of tho plants that reached Singapore wero dead in August, 1879, when Walter Fqx took over a post in tho Singaporo Botanical Gardens. But they Had been placed in a dry, shallow soil, rtnd Mr., Fox had tho survivors planted .n low, flat land at tho foot of a slope. There they flourished, and from their seoa fresh stock began to riso around them.

Hut the planters were making money out of coffee, and for years they laughed at tho idea that rubber would pay them better. Fortunately, tho staff of tho Botanical Gardens never lost faith in the rubber tree's future in Malaya, and methodically extended their stock. "Tn flue season they reaped." Coffee began to slump, and tho planters had to seek an alternative crop. Ono planter made a contract to take over all tho rubber seeds from tho Botanical Gardens. This did not please tho other planters, who had at last bocoino alivo to rubber's possibilities. They protested, and tho Government rescinded the contract. Then rubber was planted in earnest —to give birth to an industry that employs thousands of men and millions sterling of capital; and to mako a hundred other new contributions to our convenience and our comfort.