DANGEROUS RIDING CHARGE

Taranaki Daily News, 8 June 1929, Page 13

DANGEROUS RIDING CHARGE

MAGISTRATE DISMISSES CASES.

UNFORTUNATE BY-LAW POSITION.

Charges against four youths, Harold Cartwright, Richard King Cartwright, Lewis Miller Nicol and Peter Taylor, of riding motor-cycles along the Main North Road at Waitara on Anzac Day, in a manner dangerous to the public, were dismissed by the magistrate, Mr. R. W. Tate, at the Waitara Court yesterday. The borough inspector was forced to bring the charges under the Motor Vehicles Regulations because the borough by-laws were not gazetted, but in the opinion of the magistrate the alleged, offences were not serious enough to cause a charge to be laid under the regulations. The borough inspector, Mr. L. T. Kendrick, said he had seen the cyclists going north and had heard them returning round the pound corner, which they turned at 25 miles per hour, picking up later to 35 to 40 miles per hour. He considered they would have met trouble at the next corner if they had carried on at the same speed. There were three of the cyclists riding in a bunch. He had stopped them and told them they were travelling too fast. To a question from Mr. L. M. Moss, for defendants, the inspector said the charges had been brought under the motor regulations because the Waitara Borough by-laws were not gazetted. He denied that he had intended catching the boys when they returned. He was in the backyard of his house when he heard them.

Mr. Moss: Did you not apologise to the boys that you were pulling them up because the borough council had been at you and you had to make a showing to retain your position?—l may have. He made no measurements and used no watch in estimating the speed, said Kendrick.

Simply because t'he borough by-laws were not gazetted, said Mr. Moss, defendants were brought up on a serious charge that on a main highway and with no traffic they had been riding in a dangerous manner. The boys would swear that they were not doing more than 25 miles an hour. The sole reason for Kendrick coming out of his house was .that four motor-cycles travelling together made a great amount of noise, and had led him to imagine they were speeding. Cartwright and Nicol gave evidence to this effect, the former stating that the inspector had said he pulled them up because he would lose his job if he did not obtain some convictions. It was unfortunate that the charges had been made under the Act, said the magistrate, and he thought the prosecution had not proved its ease. He was inclined to think the inspector had been mistaken in his estimate of the speed, and there was no corroboration of his evidence. He would impress upon the defendants, however, the seriousness of a breach of that section of the Act.