MOTORIST AND POLICEMAN.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 10 September 1924, Page 8

MOTORIST AND POLICEMAN.

The affection of a motorist towards a policeman i s about as intense as that of 'the mouse towards the cat, and, like the cat, the policeman almost invariably Ims the last word (remarks the Utago Daily Times). Even though the motorist is only “convicted and discharged/ he experiences a horrible sensation, as he leaves the Court, that the man in . blue is endeavouring to convey to him, by means of that steelv glmt in his eve (possessed by all police“men), that, he is merely biding his time, and that the next offence will relieve him of a substantial portion of his salary, in default a definite period of his spare time in scrubbing the floor of his cell. But there is one occasion on record in Dunedin, the city where this friendly spirit of rivalry exists between Robert and the motorist to a fairly large degree, on which the man at the wheel scored an undoubted victory. The policeman was once a London traffic “cop,” and what lie did not know about traffic control was not worth knowing. There was one particular car which used to get on his nerves—the colour or something displeased him—so he determined to bag it for speeding. Waiting his chance! he pounced out into the middle of the street, held up his hand impressively, and brought the car to a halt. “You’ve been speeding,” said he, “I want to look at your speedometer.” The motorist did some rapid thinking. “I don’t 'think I have,” he said, “hut will you be satisfied with my speedometer only? It’s in perfectly good order.” Robert had caught his man and was not loth to accede to such a trivial request. The speedometer, he knew, did not lie. Now, in spite of -numerous requests, Robert, the London traffic expert, declines to relate to his fellow policemen how lie stopper] a car for soeeding 9 t the rate of no miles an hour. The speedometer, of course, registers onlv the speed at which the car is travelling, so that when the machine has stopped the instrument registers a blank.