WEEK-END TERMS IN GAOL

Southland Times, Issue 23652, 29 October 1938, Page 8

WEEK-END TERMS IN GAOL

DRUNKEN MOTORISTS MINISTER TO PLACE IDEA BEFORE CABINET (Special to The Times) WELLINGTON, October 28. If the Minister of Transport (the Hon. R. Semple) can persuade the Cabinet to agree to the idea, the war against drunken motorists is to be carried a step further. His proposal is that drivers convicted of being drunk in charge of motor-cars should work out their gaol sentence during weekends only. It is a practice that is carried out in some states of America and from information the Minister has received it is proving an effective deterrent to the growing practice. In an interview today Mr Semple made it clear that he was determined to put the drunken driver off the road.

“Drink and driving,” he said, “do not mix and a man in charge of a high-powered car is a potential murderer. He said that he intended asking the Cabinet to approve week-end gaol punishment for convicted drivers. He pointed out that apart from the salutary effect it would have on the person convicted, the idea had other useful features. For instance, a wa'geearner sentenced to a fortnight’s gaol for being found drunk in charge forfeited Kis wages for that fortnight and his wife and family suffered as a consequence of his misdoing. “I do not want a wife and family to be penalized through a man’s action,” said Mr Semple. ' “He alone should be made to suffer. By’working out that fortnight’s sentence over week-ends he loses no wages during the week and he is taught a lesson. In those parts of America where this system has been tried it has created a psychological effect that has been helpful in curbing this practice. “It is quite obvious,” added the Minister, “that we will have to do something more than we are doing to stop this menace. We have been trying to persuade people to keep, away from liquor when driving high-powered cars and they will not do it. Instead of convictions going down they have been going up and we will have to stop it.”