MUCH-VEXED PROBLEM.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20384, 12 October 1929, Page 12

MUCH-VEXED PROBLEM.

TEST OF DRUNKENNESS.

"CONTROVERSY IN SYDNEY.

, Coroners and others in Sydney are still worrying tho difficulty of satisfying themselves whether a man is under the influence of alcohol or not. It is a matter, eays a correspondent of a Melbourne newspaper, of proving not whether a man concerned in a motor accident is drunk, but jwhethcr he is ptejudicially affected by iwhat ho has drunk, so that he endangers others on tho road. It is just as difficult to prove this as to satisfy the Court that a man is actually intoxicated. Most 01 the tests applied seem to bo quite absurd. What is a test of one man is none of another. 'Io say, "She gathers shells by the sea shuro would .sometimes trip the staid home-loving mother of a family, and a'perfectly sober man might not be able to- balance himself on his toes while an additional tost was applied ' The'city coroner, Mr. E. A. May, up'. . pears to have made up his mind, ns a ,f preliminary provision in deciding tlieso cases, that if a man has had but one drink |P ho cannot be considered to be incapable, s -y '' therefore it is not sufficient for a constable or any other witness to say that ft.driver "3inclt of drink." Mr. May's conclusion does not satisfy others. Thoy say that- the onlv safe £ chnrso (or any driver is to abstain from alcohol until he has finished work for the P ' na mo3t people will accept ||| * bo odout ' as evidence against him.