DAMN THE DRIVER!

NZ Truth, Issue 144, 21 March 1908, Page 5

DAMN THE DRIVER!

HOW AP THE RAMS?

Animal v. Human Life.

, The Danneyirke-Hek-bertville Coach-* ma; Company is ? a business concern rim specifically for .the accumulation of cash, and should it kill or. maim anybody; m the ' process— well , %he manager's jtrpiibles;'' if ' the wounded person cannot stand a joke. /'Truth's" attention has been directed to the case of J. Parke, one of the company's drivers, who met with an accident simply because the parsimonious' s-hindicate is m the habit of running rotten conveyances and had a smash-up "through a' defectave wheel. ■ In^ addiitioii to > passengers, the coa6h ■•/"c^pried "two ; rams and a box of butter— which ' fell on Parke. and flattened him but for a fort.nigM at least, and probably longer. This noor devil -of a driver had to walk a considerable distance into Webeji without help, and the compassionate, company refused to send a vehicle for him to be conveyed to Dannevirke . despite the fact that the manager was made/ aotj'uai'nted with his' condition by telephone. Were it not for the kindness of a friend. Parke .'would probably be lying •on the road till, the present time. Upon reaching the ; town, the unfortunate whip-wielder heard that the manager didn't trouble his head about him at all : Ih : fact,' his \ chief anxiety was about the beastly rams, 'for when 1 infornjed by 'phone that 'Parker had become incaftaci-fcatefl, he eiaculated. • "Oh >! ' ,Btrt , are the ' rams' all right,,.? ' ' These buttling 1 amb-getters were probably consigned tp some wealthy persons, and their livns wero 1 infinitely more v.ilu able than that of a mere drivef, -v^hb can be purchased at so much a week whenevet re infod. Theinanager" persisted m the statement, when, inquiries were 'made, that the driver was. ONLY A BIT BRUISED," but Parke spent Wo weeks m. the hospital t and was not entirely recovered when he left, the institution, so. that if he was "only a bit bruis.ed" this pa^er would like to hear the manaffer?s opinion of a man who is dying. Such a man would prdbably be ''a bit If the idriver had ; been an ! individual with much cash, the brutal manager would have fallen over' 'his large feet m- his 6ageniess to make inquiries about the .invalid's health, and it was probably because he feared a claim under the Workmen's Compensation for Acci'dehts Act. or the Employer's Liability Act,- or whatever humane onactmentcoveirs suoh maiming of men, that he- attempted to minimise the trouble. A company that would send a cpabhout with a cronk wheel woiild do about anything, and if it lived m the days prior to Plimsoli, and was ih the ' shipping Jine, it would, have, the lives of countless coffln-Tship sailor men on its conscience. This publicity is given to the matter m order to prevent a recurrence" of a similar happening, for human, life is a more sacred consideration than bopdie, though persons like the coaching company management don't seem to think so.