FOOLS AND MOTORS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 3774, 24 September 1907, Page 2

FOOLS AND MOTORS.

We do not hold ourselves responsible for opinions expressed by our correspondents.

To the Editor Sir, —Kindly permit me, per medium of your valuable paper, to ventilate a grievance which is becoming an intolerable nuisance. I refer to the evident determination of some motorists to monopolise the whole of a roadway to the danger of drivers of, horse vehicles. I say some motorists, for there are a few gentlemen who handle their motors in such a manner as to call forth no complaint whatever, but there are a number of other persons who do not seem to be possessed of the most ordinary courtesy, and who evidently delight in terrorising the occupants of horse vehicles. I have heard a good deal about this practice lately, and had a practical illustration of it bn Sunday last. Between Foxton and Motuiti, while driving alone in a gig, a motor containing four men approached from the opposite direction; I pulled off to give space for the motorists to pass, who, not content with practically threefourths of the road, forced me right off the road, and even then, all but touched my vehicle in passing. The thing was so palpably deliberate that there was no mistaking the intention to have, at least, a laugh at my expense, Now, lam as fond of a joke as most people, but if I had had a companion with me, who could have corroborated my statements in a court of law, I would have allowed the smart young man, who evidently considered himself master of the situation, to effect the smash that would have been inevitable but for my getting smartly out of the way, i and perhaps the joke would have been on the other side at the settling up. Now, sir, is the travelling public to be menaced in this way by a number of crack-brained nincompoops who, because somebody has given them enough money with which to purchase a motor, think they can ride roughshod over better men. I think it is high time some bye-laws were made by the local authorities to protect respectable travellers. I would suggest that every driver of a motor car be compelled to deposit a sum of which he will forfeit in case of an accident caused by his carelessness, -or that it be a legal action on the part of a driver of a horse veichle to arm himself with a vessel in the character of a Chinese stink-pot, which he can hurl at his motor antagonist if he does not keep within the space of his side of the road. Some means' of defence is absolutely necessary, or the drivers of horse vehicles will soou be driven off the roads altogether, to make room for the person that has often moire money than brains.—l am, in the interests of the public safety,— Traveller.