OFFSIDE RULE

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLV, Issue 21179, 28 October 1938, Page 11

OFFSIDE RULE

“ Must Have Liberal Interpretation ” Cases In Magistrate’s Court "The offside rule has to receive a liberal Interpretation and on the evidence I cannot convict,” said Mr H. Morgan, S.M., in the Timaru Magistrate’s Court yesterday when George Eric Davies (Mr L. M. Inglis) was charged with failing to give way to a vehicle on his right at the corner of Sefton and Sarah Streets. He pleaded not guilty. The charge arose as a result of a collision at the corner between a “fiaby”. car driven by defendant and a milk van, said Sergeant D. W. Black, who prosecuted. , William Thomas Wedderell, the driver of the van, said that the cause of the accident was the speed of defendant's car and his failure to give way. Defendant said that he did give way but the van came round on its wrong side and crashed into him. The Magistrate held that the evidence showed that the defendant gave way. There was a hedge on the right and immediately Davies saw the van he applied his brakes. If the van had been driven at a reasonable speed it could have passed in front of the smaller car. Davies, it appeared, did all he could to allow the van to pass. The case would be dismissed. Breach of License A plea of guilty was entered when the Mt. Cook and Southern Lakes Tourist Company were charged with carrying on a passenger service other than in conformity with their license. The charge concerned a special trip from Queenstown to Invercargill on June 30. Traffic Inspector W. R. Ashwell explained thrt individual fares were paid for the trip, which was advertised on a board outside the company’s office. The company could have hired the bus by contract for the trip, but had no right to charge fares or advertise it. The license the company was operating on was for a new service, but if the conditions had been carefully studied the breach should not have occurred. Mr H. Coxhead, on behalf of the company, said they had been operating such services since 1910 and had run many contract trips. The trip in question was the first the Queenstown manager had directed under a new license and a mistake had been made. They could have obtained a permit for the trip, and there was no question of taking business from any other service. If the bus had not been run many people in Queenstown would have missed seeing the Ranfurly Shield match at Invercargill. A fine of £2 and costs 3/-. was imposed. Having a Race "These men were having a race,” said Sergeant Black in prosecuting Joseph Askey and Thomas Taylor Shivas, who were each fined £3 with costs 10/-. for driving motor cars at a speed exceeding 30 miles an hour in Talbot Street, Geraldine. Shivas was fined 10/- and costs 10/- for not having a current warrant of fitness.

For driving at a speed exceeding 30 miles an hour in Craigie Avenue, Herbert Edward Lawson was fined £2 and costs 10/-. No Warrants of Fitness Motorists who failed to have current warrants of fitness were fined as follows:—John Thorne Anstey, 15/- and costs 12/-; Eric Cartwright (in respect of trailer), 5/- and costs 10/-; Helen Crighton Chalmers, ordered to pay costs 10/-; Wallace Finlay, 15/- and costs 10/-; Leo Raymond McKenna, £1 and costs 12/-; Daniel O’Boyle, £1 and costs 12/-; Frederick Vernon Reed, 10/and costs 10/-; Leonard Frederick Robins, 12/6 and costs 10/-; Charles W. Robinson, 10/- and "Osts 10/-; Lindsay Stewart. £1 and costs 12/-; George Bishop Turnbull, 10/- and costs 10/-; William Campbell, ordered to pay costs 10/-; Percy Howard Bell (the owner of the vehicle driven by Campbell for aiding Campbell in the commission of an offence), 15/- and costs 10/-. For operating vehicles without current drivers’ licenses, the following were fined:—John William Dorman, Frederick Vernon Reed and Henry Rudolph Wigley, 10/- and costs 10/-; Alexander Esler, and Lauchlan Ross Munro, 10/- and costs 12/-. Other Breaches George Norman Smart, a motor cyclist, who overtook a vehicle which had stopped to give way at a pedestrian crossing, was fined £1 and costs 11/-. Henry James Clarkson, who rode a cycle at night without a light, was fined 7/6 and costs 11/-.