HUNTING THE BICYCLISTS.

Observer, Volume XVI, Issue 925, 3 October 1896, Page 6

HUNTING THE BICYCLISTS.

Is the Cycle a Nuisance?

The Civil authorities, the magisterial bench, and the non-cycling public in general seem bent on making the bicyclist's life a misery to him. He is compelled to register his machine — fee one shilling — and to affix a distinguishing number at his own expense. He must not ride on the footpath on pain of Police Court proceedings, and he must be wary in the crowded street, for cabbies, 'busmen, and butcher boys will run him down if they can. If he leaves his unregistered machine outside a shop while he goes inside to make a purchase, a police, man will pounce on him when he comes oat, and summon him for having no number affixed; if the policeman is not handy, some small boy will kindly plaster his saddle with mud while he waits inside, or stick a pia through the iubber tyre with the same juvenile joy which delights in lstting the air out of a rubber ball. Considering all these persecutions (and prosecutions), the cyclist scores but feebly, even though he does occasionally run over a pedestrian's toes, or scare elderly females at night as he whizzes past them on his wild and wobbly way. Bicyclists in Auckland feel aggrieved because they are compelled to register their machines at the City Council Office, and affix a distinguishing number on each machine. They want to know why cycliats are singled out and the other private conveyances allowed to go free. Personally, although we do not ride a 'bike,' we consider that it is unfair to tax bicycles and not private carriages. A man who owns a sumptuous family carriage is not forced to register it, though a man who runs a Bmall express cart has to do so. If we go on the piinciple that only vehicles used for hire and for business purposes in the btreets must be registered, and pay a fee for doing so, why do we include a bicycle, which does not come under this category ? A private carriage is a far greater obstruction than a bicycle, and the perambulator which wends its erratic way amongst the legs of pedestrians is a greater nuisance than either, and yet it ia not taxed. The domestic ' pram.' is a greater annoyance and a cause of more profanity in a crowded footpath than any number of bicycles on the road. And why is not the perambulator subject to registration and taxation like the two-wheeled machine? We guess it is because ' prams.' are a universal evil, and because mostly every house has got one of

these machines, but the bicycle id aa yet caviare to the million and iB confined to a comparatively very small portion of the community. But the day will come when the ' bike ' will have itß.day, and then goodbye to prejudice against it. When we have a cycling City Council, and a cycling Town Clerk, and cycling Magistrates, the bicyclist who rides in fear and trembling now will have a good time, and the few pedestrians who are left will have to get bikes also in self-defence. "When they have knocked the registration rule on the head, they will get roads made with a special view to their convenience. This is evidently the hope of a correspondent, 'Cyclist,' who writes us as follows: — 'Dear Obsebveh, I have just struck an idea, which, I think, would be of interest to the cyclists of our city, viz., the formation of a ' Society for the Promotion of Cycling among the Members of our Local Governing Bodies.' The idea of such an association would of conise be that if the members of councils were all cyclists, they would very quickly have the roads put into, and kept in, such a state of repair, that they (the roads) would be at least passable to bicycles. Also it would tend to prevent the passing of by-laws for the annoyance of cyclists, and the repeal of those at present in force. Of course I know that one has just to call your attention to the number of ladies who are now taking up the sport, several of whom have already had to give up, owing to our bad roads, and to the present state of these roads, to induce you to ÜBe your all-powerful interest on behalf of the many sbfferers. I know also that it is needless to point out to you the good effects of cycling on a community such as ours. 1 Well, cyclists can hardly expect the roads to be run in their interests at present ; they must just put up with the ruts and stonesBut as machines increase in popularity and cheapness, it is impossible that riders' claims to consideration will be over-looked. Anyhow, if they are to be forced to pay registration fees, they will have a perfect right to claim some attention in return from the local authorities who maintain (or fail to maintain) the public thoroughfares.

There exists a good deal of prejudice amongst those who do not po3sess bicycles against those who do. It is a case of the ' Have nots ' being jealous of the ' Haves.' When a gouty or irritable old man or a maiden lady with 'nerves' sees fleet wheelmen or wheelwomen speed by like the wind, they are apt to feel envious, and perhaps as if they would like to put a brick under the infernal machine, and send the rider flying. The cyclist has not yet got a status. But the bicycles are becoming more and more popular, not merely as a means of pleasure, but as vehicles of locomotion to and from business, and whether the civic authorities and the old ladie? of both sexea will or no, they have come to stay. And as all of us may be bicyclists onrselves before long, even those who growl so much at the machine now, it behoves us to be lenient with him when he grazes our toes round a corner, or forgets to ring his bell at a street crossing. There are some unthinking hoodlums amongst them, and they need a lesson in the Police Court sometimes, but cyclists for their own sakes should unite and do all they can to ' sit on ' such youthß who imagine that because they have got a machine on the half-a-crown a week deferred payment system they can run amuck when and where they like. The respectable body of cyclists, which is growing every week, need not be confounded with the larrikins of the wheel.