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Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 826, 21 November 1929, Page 8

A current argument in the correspondence column centres round the method adopted by traffic policemen in administering reproof to motorists, a certain number contending with no little heat that pointsmen are prone to overstep the bounds of politeness. It is axiomatic, of course, that politeness never gets anyone anywhere these days, but the trouble with the system now in vogue locally is that the motorist is rarely credited with an honest mistake. If he misinterprets the traffic man’s signal it is always through his own blindness, stupidity or perversity, and never by any chance through any laxity on the part of the official. Since any disposition to argue the matter is invariably fatal —that is to say, it ends in the Magistrate’s Court —it is difficult to see a remedy. There is always this consolation, that behind his stern exterior and the barbed reproofs of his professional manner the traffic policeman is no doubt gentle, amiable, kind and chivalrous. His more distasteful manner is exhibited only on point duty. That is the point. He is only cross at the crossings.