NOTES AND COMMENTS

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 290, 5 September 1942, Page 6

NOTES AND COMMENTS

Many citizens will be inclined to agree that the tramway motormen of Wellington have good reason for their complaint about the glaring headlights of certain motor vehicles. For some time after the introduction of restrictions on the use of headlights, close attention was paid to the manner in which vehicle-owners complied with the regulations. Of late, however, vigilance seems to have diminished. Almost every night may be seen headlights which violate the spirit, if not the letter, of the law’s requirements, and which are undoubtedly a trial to tramway motormen in darkened city streets. Frequently the worst offenders are those who have fitted their Cars with so-called ‘‘fog lamps.” Though these lights are usually set low down, they project a dazzling beam and in consequence they make a mockery of the prohibition on the use of both main headlights. In response to the tramwaymen’s complaint the traffic authorities should state when they intend to issue the official headlight masks, which have been planned and promised for the best part of a year. Probably no civil emergency precaution has been subject to so much change of mind, so many delays and so little practical efficiency, as this one has. Among E.P.S. vehicular sections (which are still making do with all manner of makeshifts) these simple attachments have become known as the Kathleen Mavourneen masks. Not only emergency vehicles, but all road vehicles should have them with a minimum of further waste of time, in order that driving conditions may be made reasonably safe and the public as a whole, including city tram drivers, relieved of strain and anxiety.

It is heartening to have from the First Lord of the Admiralty, Mr. A. V. Alexander, a brighter picture of the war at sea than it has been possible to give for some time past. Not so long ago the situation was gravely disturbing. According to the statement what appears to have happened to better the position is that-new methods have been successfully applied to circumvent the U-boats. The greater part of the heavy losses sustained earlier in the year were on the American side of the Atlantic. The new tactics have now had the effect of driving the U-boats back to their former hunting-grounds, where, we are assured, they will now And their task doubly more dangerous than before. If the successes achieved in July and August in the destruction of enemy submarines can be maintained, the result should have a ponderable influence on the course of the war.