Wairarapa Daily Times. [Established Third of a Century.] THURSDAY, JANUARY 30, 1913. THE "SPEED-LUST" OF THE MOTORIST.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume LXIV, Issue 11579, 30 January 1913, Page 4

Wairarapa Daily Times. [Established Third of a Century.] THURSDAY, JANUARY 30, 1913. THE "SPEED-LUST" OF THE MOTORIST.

As Show time approaches, the question of the excessive speed of motor cars is receiving attention, the subject being brought up at the meeting of the Masterton Borough Council on Tuesday night. Last year, cars raced back and forwards from the showgrounds at a speed that endangered the lives and limbs of all others who had occasion to use the main thoroughfare. Some of the drivers of these cars were only licensed for the two days of the Show, and thoy were doing their utmost to make as much money as possible in the short space of time at their disposal. Many minor accidents occurred, and the wonder is that there were no fatalities. Certainly something should be done to check this excessive rate of travelling, and the publicity given to the matter may have the desired effect. Man, as he is built by Nature, is a slow moving animal, and almost any other animal can outstrip him in a race, but with the aid of invention, he can now travel on land faster than the 1 hare, or ane water he can rival the fishes, and in the air the eagle can barely hold his own with man. The tendency of modern thought and modern invention is all towards speed. The faster we go, the faster we desire to go. A man may be a quiet, easy-going, everyday citizen, but let him obtain a motor and his nature seems to change, and the desire for speed grips him like a | 'vice. A clean, straight road and the i

fences and'hedge-rows flying past him till they arp reduced to a blurr, is the joy of life,, and the faster he goes, the faster he wants to gos" Before the speed craze gripped him he may have shuddered fit the thought of killing a fly, but When'he is seated in his car, dogs, fowls, and even human beings matter nothing to him beyond the fact that they arc obstacles' in the way of his obtaining a higher speed, this picture may be overdrawn—it probably is —but it, serves to illustrate the speedlust of the average motorist. Of course, there aro those, and they are many, who are content with a reasonable speed, and by whom the motor-car is used and not abused. These men this article will not touch, it is not meant that it should. The man we want to get at is he who is commonly termed the "motor-hog"—

the class of man who is oil a par with the serpent—"his hand is against every man and every man's hand is against him." This speed lust should be branded as a class of lunacy, the remedy for which should be two doctors and an asylum, then perhaps the motor would not be dreaded by timid people as it is to-day. v