THE RECKLESS MOTORIST.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume L, Issue 12246, 21 June 1909, Page 8

THE RECKLESS MOTORIST.

■ ■Reports just to hand of a debate on, motor traffic in the"1 Hoiise of Lords are, interesting to these Christchurch. people whi6 complain of the selfishness of the I reckless motorist. : Lord Willoughby de Broke; moved the second reading of a Bill to restrict speed'bf. all vehicles to ten miles in villages- or dangerous places, twenty miles in or" near towns, and thirty miles in the open country. Speedmeters were to be made compulsory for fast vehicles, and the owner as well as the driver was to .be made liable. The noble lord declared that he had had experience with many kinds of vehicles, and >he contended -that ten miles an hour quite 'fast enough for any vehicle in a dangerous place. By his Bill racing and speed competitions on public: roads .would be forbidden ,and the. use,.of: hooters and other loud instruments, of warning prohibited-, . "At present motorists assume to themselvesthe previleges of the fire-engine, and it is only by depriving them of the power to shout other vehicles and pedestrians but of their .way that complete ■■control' cf the speed can be obtained." Lord Dartmouth "admitted that the weakest users of the road were entitled to the utmost consideration. He always instructed his driver to. go round corners in the expectation of finding on the wrong side of the road an old lady in a governess cart. Another speaker put forward'■the 1-rather remarkable opinion that the roads now most frequented by motorists were peace- , an? 9 uiet compared with roads in the old; Coaching days, when the highways wero "a pandemonium of dust and danger," The most significant words came from Lord Lansdowne, who "marvelled at the patience and good humour withAvhich the village population of this country accepted this new, and to many or them intolerable, incident in their daily lives... Parliament owed it to these people to do everything in its power to mitigate the suffering and inconvenitmce which the introduction of motor traffic had-produced." The Bill was withdrawn in view of the Government's proposals for the improvement of roads