ROAD SAFETY

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 147, 17 March 1939, Page 11

ROAD SAFETY

Funds Needed For Publicity

USE OF PENNANTS

Discussion By N.I.M.U.

Conference

The value of road-safety propaganda and the best method of paying for it were at the half-yearly conference of the North Island Motor Union in Wellington yesterday.

Dr. E. E. Porritt (Wanganui) suggested that each association should have a Hag for its district, which would help to make the motorists road safety conscious before the heavy traffic of the centennial year.

The question extended further than that, said Mr. E. Palliser (Wellington). In Wellington the flag applied only to the city, but immediately beyond its boundaries there had been fatalities, while the flag had been flying almost in sight of them. It would be farcical for each association to have a flag at its headquarters. Flags should be flown in Petone, Lower Hutt, Paekakariki and. in fact, wherever there was a township. The chairman. Mr. H. F. Edmundson (Hawke’s Bay) said that the pennants would be more effective if flown at half-mast in the case of a fatality. The first thing to decide was whether the flags should be adopted throughout the country.

After some discussion, it was decided to obtain from the centres particulars of the procedure adopted and to forward the information to all associations to ensure uniformity. Financing Campaign. A suggestion was put forward that, to finance the general safety campaign, 1/- be taken from the registration fees Mr. E. A. Batt (Wellington) said he was opposed to anything that would lead to an increase in taxation, which had been fought for years by the motorists. The present road safety campaign was doing good, but was hampered by lack of funds. He said he was convinced that, the money required for publicity should come from the petrol tax. Instead of spending, all the money on good roads, where the most accidents happened, part of it should be devoted to publicity. It was common knowledge that people who drove safely over the Paekakariki Hill and over the Rimutakas smashed themselves to death on the Hutt Road, because the principle of exercising care for self-preservation was reduced in proportion to the good qualities of the road. Educating Motorists. “It is necessary to provide money to enable the National Road Safety Council to educate motorists,” said Mr. Batt. “If we put it before the Minister today I believe be would agree. The petrol tax last year was almost £4,000,000. What is £lO,OOO out of that if it removes accidents? We are now paying £1,700,000 in general taxation, and we do not know what we may have to face in the future. I think, in order to find funds for the National Safety Council, we should urge the course I have suggested to the The bulk of the expenditure by the associations, perhaps 90 per cent., was spent on publicity and other ways to ensure road safety. He asked that the Minister should be called on by resolution of the meeting to provide £20,000 a year for the purpose of carrying out a comprehensive national plan. Mr. W. A. O'Callaghan (past president) explained that the Safety Council had £2500 which was not being spent, and it decided to make it available to any scheme the automobile associations would bring forward, subsidizing amounts by 3 to 1. It was not the idea that the associations should do the whole work, but the money was available, and that If the associations put forward a scheme it would be made available to them. Apparently that money had not been forthcoming. The position was that the Safety Council had not enough money. Mr. G. R. Hutchinson moved an amendment to Mr. Batt’s proposal:— “That the Commissioner of Transport be asked to inform the union of the sum it is possible to make available annually to cover the activities of the National Safety Council, and what sum is to be made available annually to the automobile associations as a subsidy for their safety activities, and the source of such moneys.” This was carried.