IGNORANCE AND PRE JUDICE

Horowhenua Chronicle, 16 May 1916, Page 3

IGNORANCE AND PRE JUDICE

There is uo douot, says the ''Autocar/' thiut <ut tiie present time there is u wave ol' anti-automobile feeling passing over tlie country. it is not one ot those spontaneous outbreaks which cxeur From time to time, '.ucii as the deep-seatedl prejudice which was evinced against motors ana tlieir use in the early days. The prejudice which existed tlion was not because motors were costly and many could not all nil them, but simply because they were new and noisy, frightened horses and made a dust; but really their . reat offence was their newness. As 'ho movement spread andi horse-less locomotion became more and more an everyday wcurronee, this prejudice gradually lessened and a great any people believed in 1914 that it would; be a thing of the past.

Til the early days ot the war there were so many things to think about that- there wars no time for jealousies, ■hut recently a new kind of anti-motor prejudice has made its appearance, which in its way is quite as serious as the old type; the old prejudice was (spontaneous audi the new is manufactured. First of all tho at-teinpt to u]) bad feeling took the form of a.

campaign in certain papers for the suppression of moter-car traffic altogether, and this was carried to fairly front leii 'tlis IT, o'e or two quart- 1 and many misrepresentations wore made, especially about the consumption of petrel. 1 Then we hart the recommendations of the War Savings Committee. osteiiMbnv clr.rected against t.he use of motor cars for pleasure, but worded in such a way that, if the idea were not to excite popular prejudice against the use of any private motor cars at all. we can only say £hrvt had this sinister end been in view it could hardly have been 'better carried; out.