WAR ON MOTORISTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3763, 27 April 1926, Page 17

WAR ON MOTORISTS.

COUNTY COUNCILS CONFER MEETING AT NAPIER. -) —i! NAPIER, April 20. ' Delegates representing the county councils from Wairoa to Pahiatua resolved, at a conference held here to-day, on the motion of Mr H. M. Campbell, M.P.: That this conference requests the Prime Minister and Minister of Publio Works to go into the question of the upkeep of roads, and to see whether, in fairness to the county ratepayers, a much larger proportion of the cost could be collected from the owners of all motor vehicles than is done now. The general opinion was that motorist* should pay on a basis of the extent to which they used the roads by means of a petrol or tyre tax. "No person shall drive any motor vehicle laden with any goods on any Tuning board so that the goods shall project outside the edge of such running board.” This is the text of the new by-law adopted by the conference. “ That means that the running board is the absolute limit,” said Mr 11. M. Campbell, M.P.. “ And a very good thing, too,” added another delegate. The conference discussed a proposal to ensure the more strict enforcement a l the traffic by-laws by the appointment of traffic police under a joint scheme. Mr J. W. Ellingham (Dannevirke), who introduced the subject, stated -that motorists had now had sufficient time to understand the by-laws, and it was up to the councils to have them more stringently enforced than in the past. Traffic police would be provided with cars'and weighing jacks. With the latter they : could jack upu a lorry and weigh it/ and if it were found to be overloaded; the policeman could force part of the ;load to be immediately put off. Measures such as that would soon make drivers careful. Others ‘ neglected to carry reflectors or had loads projecting tool far over the sides. Unless the councils worked together on a uniform system they would never get anywhere. “Mr Ellingham’s suggestion is the solution,” said Mr A. C. Russell ( kurau). “Three-quarters of my lot would be in the dock for speeding if we had policing throughout the district.” Mr H. M. Campbell said: “It is absolutely necessary that something should be done. Why, I had a case told me that happened only within the last 24 hours in which a car driver had to do 58 miles an hour in an endeavour to catch a lorry, and then could not do it.”

Delegates generally favoured joint action rather than that each county should act independently. It was decided to ask all counties to give an expression of opinion on the proposal to institute such a scheme.