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New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1495, 19 December 1918, Page 31

Action was taken in the t Magistrate’s Court, Wellington, against Archibald G. A. Gledhill for having ridden his machine along the Oriental Bay Parade with both hands off the handle-bars. Sergeant Martin stated that Gledhill careered along the road lying right back on the carrier. Gledhill answered that he was an expert rider, and was really running no risk, but the magistrate, Mr. S. L- P. Free, S.M., was not impressed and imposed a fine of ss. and 7s. costs. Gledhill was also fined 10s. and 7s. costs for failing to stop when requested to do so. by a constable on point duty. In extenuation he said that he was on his way, on Armistice Day, to call an ambulance to deal with a street accident. He had been asked to do so by the police, and said that he felt hurt that immediately afterwards he s muld be prosecuted for doing what he could. “I was almost an ambulance myself,” he concluded. “And you might have caused another case for an ambulance,” said Mr. O’Shea. * • ♦ • , A cow was the central figure in a case heard at the Marton Magistrate’s Court, before Mr. J. G. L. Hewitt, S.M., last week, when A. Beckwith proceeded against Amos Phippen for £l4 10s., damages to a motor cycle through a collision with a cow near Crofton. The plaintiff stated that he was an engineer at the Kakariki Freezing Works. On the Sth August he was returning home on his motor cycle, with two passengers, and when between the two bridges near Crofton he saw a cow grazing on the roadside. When about five or six yards from the cow, it suddenly crossed the road, with the result that he collided with the cow, and the occupants were thrown out, the passen-

ger on the carrier being thrown clean over the cow, and the motor cycle capsized over the bank. The cow belonged to Mr. Phippen. Mr. McDougall’s estimate for repairs to the cycle was £9 10s. A. M. Brown, who was a passenger in the side-car, stated that they were travelling at about five miles an hour when they approached the cow. As they got near the cow it turned right round, and the car struck the cow on the hindquarters. The collision occurred on the left side of the road, opposite Phippen’s place. From the bridge to where the collision occurred was about twenty yards. He had often seen the same cow wandering on the road. For the defence, Alice Phippen, a daughter of the defendant, stated that when she came from school she went to the paddock and drove the cow home along the grass on the side of the road. She left the cow for a moment to open the gate. She did not see the motor cycle strike the cow. The cow was facing the gate before the accident. The magistrate said that if the girl was bringing the cow from the paddock, and left it to open the gate, there was no negligence. The only other point was that she may have left the cow further away, and took longer to open the gate. It seemed strange to him that the girl did not see more of the accident. Judgment would therefore be for the defendant, with £1 Is. costs. * * * • In a military centre not 100 miles from London (says an English writer) the colonel of a well-known regiment was invited, with his officers, to a lunch and entertainment at the house of a local lady who had shown much

hospitality in this way, especially to the wounded men. When the officers arrived in their motor car, the lady recognised the driver as a girl friend, and she promptly invited her to join the party. But she was told that this would not be possible, as she could not be entertained with her superior officers. “Oh!” said the lady, “it’s all right. The colonel used to be our chauffeur, and he has told me that he would like to go and have lunch with his friends in the servants’ hall.” So the lady driver lunched with the hostess.

The amazing manner in which the modern aeroplane has increased man’s mobility is shown by the fact that a pilot breakfasted in Newcastle (England), lunched on the South Coast, had tea in France, and dined in London.