The Star. THURSDAY, JANUARY 31, 1929. NOTES OF THE DAY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18674, 31 January 1929, Page 8

The Star. THURSDAY, JANUARY 31, 1929. NOTES OF THE DAY.

SOMEBODY HAS SUGGESTED that the motorists should contribute substantially towards the provision of warning signs at level crossings, and such an idea might appeal to any Government as a very cheap way out of a very grave difficulty. We do not think, however, that a case, has been made out for further taxation of motorists in this direction. Clearly, the responsibility lies upon the Railway Department to provide adequate signals at level crossings. There was some sad stuff in a recent article in the “ Star,” in which one or two engine drivers gave it as their opinion that motorists wilfully disregarded the present warning signs, and indulged in a race with death. Nothing more preposterous, we think, has ever been put in print. People do not risk their lives with their eyes open in this way, and the lengthening list of crossing fatalities proves quite conclusively that such warning devices as the Railway Department so far has thought of are quite ineffective.

WHAT IS KNOWN as the Goddard case will lead to some hard thinking among the heads of the London police. Goddard, who has been sentenced to eighteen months’ imprisonment, with fines and costs amounting to £4OOO, was once regarded as an incorruptible model of police virtue, a man of whom magistrates would say, as they often do say to exasperated counsel for the defence, “We have no ground for supposing that the sergeant would go into the witness box and wilfully perjure himself.” Sergeant Goddard has helped to change all that. As the “ Daily Telegraph ” says, it can hardly be doubted that the recent dangerous cloud of suspicion in the public mind against the Metropolitan Police is traceable in no small degree to the scandals which spread from the strange immunity enjoyed by some fashionable night clubs in London. Everyone knowing anything of West End life, the “ Daily Telegraph ” adds, was perfectly aware that proprietors of night clubs, gambling dens and disorderly houses paid tribute to the police, and everyone accepted it as a commonplace except the higher police authorities. The Goddard case will help to dispel this dangerous cloud of suspicion, but it will gather again in London or anywhere else where night clubs, disorderly houses or, it may be, bookmaking businesses, flourish under the eye of the police. Indeed, the case is a lesson for the higher police authorities of every country.

AS FAR AS A CITY can make an ass of itself, Christchurch has done so in connection with the regulation of its dance halls. It has passed a by-law which has the effect of making dance halls something like an eel trap, easy enough to get into, but very hard to get out of—that is to say, until one wishes to go home. The by-law solemnly provides that no person may leave a dance hall while a dance is in progress, or at all events, having left, may not re-enter without paying a second time or presenting a second ticket of admission, pass-out checks being forbidden. This precious by-law has been introduced to stop drinking in motor-cars and on private people’s front gardens and verandahs in the vicinity of the dance halls, regarding which complaints were once rife. It is a by-law that arouses much hilarity amongst visitors, but is very humiliating to Christchurch people. It is a perfect example of the left-handed way in which some authorities go to work to end abuses. When young hooligans were carousing outside dance halls, as they used to do, and disturbing the neighbours and throwing bottles over fences, the police should have stepped in and made an example of them. Pressure could have been brought to bear, too, oil the promoters of the dances, and if the abuses had continued the licenses of the halls could have been cancelled. As it is, our patriarchal City Council solemnly coops up everybody, even to the worldly-w ise patrons of a Jockey Club ball, and complacently shakes hands with itself at having solved a very difficult social problem. All we can say is that if this is a sample of how Christchurch gets things done, it would be better to go out of business altogether in the matter of social reformation.