The Globe. MONDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1877.

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 1019, 1 October 1877, Page 2

The Globe. MONDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1877.

“ ,Jon> T Gaik was summoned for having created a crowd in Gloucester street. A mass of evidence having been taken, his Worship said these crowds were a great nuisance, people thereby being forced out into the roadway. The man having had to attend at the Court two days, the case would be dismissed, but solely on the ground stated.” Such is the report appearing in the local papers under under the heading of Resident Magistrates’ Court. But what about the crowd of cab-drivers and others who nightly congregate on the footway in this identical street ? Through this unsavoury and anything but polite speaking concourse, anyone who wishes to pass down the street has to force his way. If he is accompanied by ladies so much the worse, and nothing remains but to take the middle of the road. Yet we do not hear of these people being summoned for obstructing the thoroughfare. They are not molested in any way, though they are a far greater nuisance than the defendant in the above case appears to have been. And not only so, but it has continued for years, to the discomfort and annoyance of numbers of respectable citizens, until the street has obtained an unenviable notoriety. Time after time we have directed the attention of the authorities to what is a most intolerable nuisance, and yet nothing is done to remove it. Why cannot the police interfere in the same way that they did in Gair’s case ? If the cabmen have a right to stand their cabs where they do, surely it is the duty of the police to see that their so doing does not interfere with the public. A s it is now, the congregation of a night on the footway is a disgrace to the city, and should not be permitted lor one moment. As the police authorities appear to have at last become awakened to a sense of their duty, it is to be hoped that they will not now relax, but rigidly insist upon the footway being kept clear, and the outrages on public decency which nightly occur there, suppressed. Tun death of William Fisher, caused by being knocked over by a cab, again directs attention to a question which must soon require the serious attention

of the authorities. In this particular case, no blame whatever appears to attach to the cab-driver. But almost every day one sees narrow escapes from the reckless manner in which cabdrivers, as well as those of other vehicles, come round the corners of streets. This is more particularly the case at crossings, such as the one near the Post Office and near the Bank of New Zealand. It is almost an hourly occurrence to see cabs driven at full speed diverging suddenly from Hereford street into Colombo street. Not 'only so, but the expresses turn so sharply round from the main street on to the stand that it is as much as one can do to get out of their way. The time has now arrived when the City Council must do something more than merely consider the matter. It is monstrous that the lives and limbs of pedestrians should be, as the}' - are now, at the mercy of drivers. In nearly every other city of New Zealand and Australia the vehicles are compelled to go at a walking pace round corners under a penalty, and such a salutary provision is needed here. Until it is in force we may expect a recurrence of the fatal accidents which have already happened from the want of some legislation. Wo commend the matter to the new City Council, in the hope that some steps will be taken by them to remedy a great evil. The matter has been brought under the notice of the late Council time after time, but with no tangible result; and now that there is an infusion of new blood into our municipal rulers, it is to be hoped that this apathy for the safety of the public will disappear. It may not be out of place, while on this subject, to remark upon the danger of the practice which now obtains of vehicles crossing the narrow bridges over the river at full speed. This is a most dangerous thing, and unless some similar enactment to that having reference to driving round corners is put in force, we shall have to chronicle loss of life or damage to limb.