BAITING MOTORISTS?

NZ Truth, Issue 1199, 22 November 1928, Page 4

BAITING MOTORISTS?

Alleged Ear-marking Of Drivers By Dunedin Traffic Officers Arising Out Of Court Cases 23 PROSECUTIONS CRASH if. . .. (From "N.Z, Truth's" Special Dunedin Representative.) j| |I JUDGING by information (documentary and otherwise) which jj 1 1 J has. reached this office, it seems that there is a sort of ear- |[ l! marking system practised by some of the Dunedin city traffic |f !| officers, and that motorists so branded are likely to fall foul of ■ j| 1 1 officialdom sooner or later. II l! In view of recent court proceeding's, when Magistrate || H Bundle threw out 23 of Chief Traffic Inspector McNichol's by- || 1 1 law prosecutions, the traffic officers are not having it all their || fi own way. , I!

f\BVIOUSLY, what is wanted is a \J new slogan. The suggestion Is thrown out that Inspector McNlchol find hia three lusty lieutenants should study the spiders on their office wall and think of Bobby Bruce. • "Try, try, ' try again" would be a working slogan m keeping with the threat, or challenge, which is alleged to have been issued some months ago by one of the traflic inspectors after another unsuccessful prosecution against a well-known citizen whose name also figured m the recent "dud" Haul of 23. But unless Chief Traffic Cop McNichol cares to burn a little midnight oil over the statu- ,__ tory traffic regulations, he and his colleagues would be better employed filling m pot-holes! | _____ It would be cheaper for the ratepayers, anyhow. The 23 cases m question were brought before the court under the speed regulations, m tho following interpretation: ". . . did drive a motor-car over an intersection within the city . . . at a speed exceeding 15 miles per hour . . ." ■ Counsel for the first defendant called 'submitted to the court that the charge as In id out m the summons did not constitute a breach, the offence of speeding over intersections having other restrictive qualifications. It was obvious to the bench tJhat the chief inspector had misinterpreted the regulations, and was

What would have resulted from the town clerk's presence m the witnessstand is a matter for conjecture, but certainly he wouid have been asked a number of questions concerning certain correspondence and conversations which might, not have reflected much credit on the tactics df the traffic officers connected with a previous case. Hud Inspector McNichol got away With .his race-day haul, he could have returned to his pffice as proud as a peacock. Tho list of defendants looked more like the guest-chart for an influential banquet than a court chargesheet, and not the least prominent among the names of many city "heads" ' . thereon, was that ~ of one popular young madanie who has a good grip on th'e steer ingwheel of society..- ■ "~~~ Verily, an d i n every sense of th'e word, it was a "big. flay "for the traffic tigers— a veritable big-game hunt! ' ' *, "Truth" is not stating a case for plutocratic motorists. To this paper a motorist is a motorist, without regard to the calibre of his purse or petrolwagon. But if, as there are, sound grounds for suspecting, there is any "you're-my-meat" element of partiality distorting the official . duties of Duncsdin's traffic officers, the time lias arrived for a rigorous investigation by the City Council. If -motorists have to face the prospects of'being brought before the court m "platoons," oniy.to hear the chief Inspector get a lesson m the intcrpi'e-

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