HORE-BELISHA'S AIM.

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13181, 13 February 1936, Page 7

HORE-BELISHA'S AIM.

GETTING DOWN CASUALTI ES. Opening the cycle and motor-cycle show ;i t Olympia, the -British Minister of Transport. Mr Hore-Belisha, said that bicycle casualties in the* last seven years had increased by 144 per cent. In the same period casualties among pedestrians had increased by only 161 per cent. He appealed to cyclists to realise that motorists had. their difficulties, and that "it is not always ill-will which causes them to inconvenience or injure cyclists.* 3 He promised that in planning the roads of the future nothing would he clone to increase the difficulties of cyclists or diminish their amenities—“but quite the reverse-” Referring to “the epic struggles’ 7 of cyclists in the early days, Mr Horo-Belisha said that changes in established and customary practice always excited apprehension. Cyclists were perhaps apprehensive for historic reasons, and their point of view had been explained to him by some or the older members of the clubs. “They have recalled to me,’’ Mr Hore-Belisha continued, “the days when the ir appearance on the roads wero challenged even in the Law Courts, and they frequently met with physical violence by other road users and were actually slashed at hv coachmen’s whips.

• Xo sooner had good relations between cvclists and the coachmen been cemented than a yet more powerful newcomer appeared to challenge the coachmen's highway supremacy. ; But do not let ns fall into the coachman s error and thing that we can expel the motorist from the roads. The motorist, like yourselves, is increasing in numbers, and we muslj learn to use the roads together with less peril to one another than we do now. We must be as visible to one another as we possibly can in all conditions, and ready to give way to one another.” Replying to a criticism by Sir Harold Bowden of the large number of beacons, signs and instructions, Mr Hore-Belisha. said: “I only want to get these casualties down. I don’t want to annoy anybody. Let us proceed on that task with good humour and understanding. If I make mistakes J am anxious to rectify them.”