LICENSED TO KILL.

NZ Truth, Issue 147, 11 April 1908, Page 6

LICENSED TO KILL.

The fleath-'Of Sidney Cadle, Dalgety's auctioneer, is the nearest approach to murder by contributory negligence that Chrisl^hurch has seen for a long time. The electrification of the local trams has been a gradual process, but is as yet incomplete, and some of the old infernal machines, propelled by steam, puff wheezily through tlie crowded streets, to the menace of the unheeding' population. It was at night, , andc Cadle once more' exemplified .the elderly truism that he ' who hesitates is lost. Tlie Opawa steam horror was slowing down to the stopping place, Cadle dar-ted to •cross, paused with irresolution,' then jumped m front of the engine on the slippery rails, but it > was , all over. For- the information of the .morbid^ the nature of his injuries is given herewith : Large, scalp wound on the right side ofthe head ; similar scalp wound, 1\ .inches long oh the left side of the head ; 'deep cut above, the right eyei ; compounjl dislocation of ; the left shoulder (arm practically , torn out ofthe socket) ; right lfeg cut clean off below the knee ; left leg smashed and hanging oiivby -.the skin. He was • forty-five and married-^-wliich is not necessarily included m the list of his injures. ' .s THE. INEVITABLE. INQUEST was a purely formal affair and conspicuous for the evidence that was not- given. Apart entirely from, the fact that the- ghastly ■death-engine is so constructed that the driver didn't see his victim and knew nothing of the accident till he: felt'" the/cumbrpus vehicle pass, over a yielding obiect, it didn?t occur to anybody to mention that Cadle, m all human probability, would be alive^ to-day had the murderous' steamer been furnished with an ordinary cow-catcher. It is an astounding tiling that while railway engines are furnished with this commonest of safeguards, and the electric trams use it by compulsion, .a relic of barbarism like the steam tram is permitted . to charge recklessly through crowded thoroughfares and , over routes upon which children are scattered m large numbers, without some simple expedient to throw obstacles from tlie line or hold them until the brakes can be applied. The Tramway Board was represented ' at the inquiry by a solicitor, but it might have saved the expense, for >the jury was composed of men entirely new to such proceedings and were too overcome, by a- sense of their own. insignificance to ask a question, and the Tramway Board, which is morally responsible for Cadle's death, was saved the inconvenience of impertinent 'ciuestions regarding its criminal liability. It is a spectacle savoring much of the pathetic, this group of smug,r self-satisfied honorary servants pf the public, who' pursue their ordinary avocation m- an ATMOSPHERE OF INTENSE RESPECTABILITY, while the dead and the bereaved call down upon their heads the Curses of heaven for their ci'ass ignorance and culpable negligence. Perhaps an action for a thousand' or twO will bring them to their senses and whip them into some understanding of the value of human life. But/ pending reformatory changes— which should include total abolition of the slaughtering machines— let the Board give tlie public a chance for its existence, and affix to the front of the engines m fiery letters, the motto of the incompetent medico, "Licensed to Kill !". At present there is a large section of the public who are quite ignorant of the -daily risk they run.; ;