Farce of the Regulations

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 662, 14 May 1929, Page 12

Farce of the Regulations

By that it is not meant inferentially that the staffs of inspectors in the cities are not doing their work thoroughly. In Auckland, at any rate, the city is exceptionally well looked •after, and the traffic department is a credit to Mr. G. R. Hogan. But, while the main centres have a corps of inspectors and police who see that the by-laws and regulations are enforced, the roads removed from the centres are as the sea to the fish, j Out on our highways the speeders do what they like, almost, and who ! is to say them nay? For example, not so very many months ago a motor-cyclist who had a passenger in the side-car was bound for Ashburton. A motor-car travelling at a high rate of speed hit the cyclist, who was shockingly mutilated and killed Instantaneously. The car, which was in the line of vehicles returning from the Ashburton races, did not

National Traffic Department Suggested to Solve Problems ! ■ THE time will come in this Dominion, as it lias in Australia, when the Government in one efficient sweep will wipe out the present ridiculous system of dealing with traffic, and set up a separate department of the police force to do nationally what is now done municipally. It may seem a Utopian idea, hut it has to come if the public is to be served efficiently.

who is to check the madness? Who is to counteract the speed maniac who kills, maims, and drives on? Does the Government expect the municipalities to police the highways from Auckland to Bluff? Does the Government think that a police constable stationed in a township, and standing in the dust on a corner, can gauge the speed or detect the number and make of a car disappearing into the night? Does the Government see any wis- ! dom in setting out regulations governing speed, and yet not provide the adequate means of enforcing those regulations ? Another important point relates to the test for licences to drive. It must be admitted by the Government that there is absence of uniformity in the tests. The city dweller must pass a rigorous test, and the country resident drives round a block, faces no