RECENT PROSECUTIONS

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12411, 3 April 1926, Page 18

RECENT PROSECUTIONS

YULE-COUTTS STREETS INTERSECTION. The Yule atreet-Coutts-street intersection promises to be a nice souroe of financial revenue—at the expense of motorists—if Tuesday’s Police ■ Court proceedings are often repeated, for there was quite a respectable bag of motorists who were mulcted in 40s and costs, not exactly for speeding over tlie intersection, but for exceeding the speed limit over it. The by-law in this respect dates back to 1 "07-8, land provides that all intersec' -a must be crossed at a speed not. exceeding eight miles an hour. This by-law, made 17 or 18 years ago, must surely have been enacted at a time when liorse traffic was in mind and not motor traffic. The roads have changed, the mportance of intersections has undergone changes., and the period has been one of transition in matters of transport. For one motor vehicle—passenger or otherwise—lß years ago

there are 50 to-day; for every horse vehicle in use to-day there were 40 or 50 at the time this regulation was made. Surely it is obvious that- the by-law was made to, regulate the. speed

of horse traffic and not motors. It would not be far wrong to state that the by-laws _ committee of the City Council realises that many of its by-, laws are obsolete and should be inoperative, but unfortunately are not. Hence comes a batch of prosecutions for exceeding a speed limit of eight miles an hour over an intersection that is comparatively safe compared with some in the city. There are occasions when action might well be taken to restrict speed in tho city instead of selecting an insignificant intersection for the purpose. The bylaws committee are now going into the question of the revision of this bylaws, and tliia particular one will probably bo revised, if not replaced.

It may be worth while pointing out that this inteisection is the one between the stops at the end of Onepu road and the one near Association Park, and a considerable distance from either, and it is a question of fad that the tramcars proceed along that portion of the road and over the intersection at a speed much - : n excess of even 12 miles an hour. Yet there is a saying that what is sauce for the goose is saqce for the gander. • • • • Mr -T. F. Cousins, secretary to the New Zealand Motor Traders’ Association, and Mr H. L. Rogers, s of Inglia Bros., are leaving hy the s.s.'Maunganni on April 16th for Melbourne, whore the big International Motor Conference is being held, to which America is sending representatives. Mr Rogers will represent the wholesale Motor Trade Association. and Mr Cousins the retail. Mr Cousins is taking a run to Cambridge for the Easter holidays. “A GOOD EYE-SIGHT” A witness in a recent motor speeding ense said he saw the defendant's car a mile and a half away, and it was going at such a pace that he ft ho witness) stonped his engine and drew his car off the bitumen track. If the ‘■C.ceding cor had raised a cloud of dust it would still have been difficult to assess the speed at all. hut as there was no dust., and the witness said he could see the sneed of the car at a dstanco cf a mile an-1 a half, well—as a motorist said —“lie’s got d—— good eyesight.” However, exaccrerntion to aucli an extent rarelv achieves its purpose, and prc'mhlv such a statement would he duly weighed up by tho justice dealing with the case.