CARRYING A RED FLAG.

Manawatu Herald, Volume LI, Issue 4460, 3 June 1930, Page 4

CARRYING A RED FLAG.

“I remember, when a bov, having seen in England a man with a red flag walking in front of a traction engine. Sueli was the political influence of the railways that what, was known as the Red Flag Act was forced through Parliament. The Act made it necessary for a man to precede by some 200 feet any traction engine,” stated Air. F. J. Belton, engineer, when oiving evidence at Christchurch before the Commission on Direct Access to the Sea (reports the “Christchurch Times"). The president (Sir Walter Stringer) : “We had that in our own legislation here.” Air. Belton continued that in 1830 steam-driven road vehicles were carrying passengers between London, Birmingham, and Bristol, at hvenfv miles an hour. This went, on until the railways forced cm the country the Red Flag Act, and it. was not until about 1890 that such an Act, which had put back road transport in England by a century, was repealed. “We in New Zealand," Mr. Belton said, "should remove all obstacles in the way of development, especially in regard lo transport.”