The Daily News. TUESDAY, AUGUST 29, 1911. HORSES AND VEHICLES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 57, 29 August 1911, Page 4

The Daily News. TUESDAY, AUGUST 29, 1911. HORSES AND VEHICLES.

The Coroner at Napier, presiding at an inquest on persons killed in a cab accident, made some necessary and cogentremarks. Apart from his reference to. "dangerous corners," a more or less local matter, he made the most important re-' commendation that horses, vehicles and harness be examined by the authorities once in every six months. At the present time the authorities everywhere are apparently solely concerned with the licensing of vehicles. While local bodies are careful to license vehicles to carry a certain load it has never occurred to i any of them to define the kind of Itetfsc t]iat shall be allowed t? draw jt, or tlie type of harness with which it is yoked. Because of this neglect, in many NeW Zealand towns tho worses employed in the streets—and particularly cab and "express" horses-are frequently of the sorriest type, and, of course, are mere slaves. Where unfit horses are used in cabs, it is not merely the cruelty to the animals that is to be considered, hilt the safety of the public. In these days of rapid transit—electric cars and motor vehicles of many kinds—the necessity for good horsemen and good horses is greater than ever it was.. Any local body that permits "crocks" to run in its streets and still licenses the vehicles in which they run, neglects its duty. Indeed, the majority of local bodies never consider the horse part of the arrangement. In the centres something has been done to weed the wretched horses out—but not by the municipalities. It is the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals which has fought for the power to "arrest" unfit horses and to have them either destroyed or taken off the roads. We do not hesitate to say that every driver of a horse in any town should have a certificate of fitness—after an exhaustive trial —to drive. It is unnecessary to walk further than Devon street to see both unfit drivers, and crippled horses pulling loads too big for them. It apparently never occurs to local bodies that New Zealand has been largely "made" by horses, for they have borne a tremendous share in the breaking-in of the land. The haphazard method of using horses is common to all towns because of the stipineness of the authorities. "Loitering" is one of the commonest sins, although one class of driver, when he isn't loitering, is a better hand with a whip than with a feed-bag. The idea that a good heavy thong is the finest cure for equine weakness takes a long time to die, and the average citizen gets so accustomed to see the whips going that he probably thinks it is as necessary to a horse as oats or grass. Unfortunately it is nobody's duty to prevent a "ten hundred-weight" horse pulling thirty hundred-weight, unless there happens to .be a branch of the S.P.C.A. in the town, and although the police know a case of cruelty or unfitness when they see it, it is not the habit to interfere. The Napier Coroner made, reference to "drunken and incapable drivers," and as every town has incapable drivers, it is not so much a question of "dealing with them more severely" as prohibiting them from driving unless they have shown fitness for the occupation before being allowed to ply a very responsible calling. As in many other matters, "they manage these things better in France," where in most of the towns drivers of all vehicles miist have certificates of fitness and every horse be certified as able to do the work for the period mentioned in the certificate. The municipalities cause the horses to be branded on one of the fore hoofs when passed as fit for road duty, and all drivers of all horse vehicles must on demand show to the po-

lice or the municipal authority his" license as a competent horseman. What New Zealand towns are chiefly concerned about, however, is the fact that horses are not classed and licensed for the particular work they are called on to do. Many drivers of carts of all, kinds—butchers', grocers', bakers', etc., are youths who have absolutely no idea of the capability of a horse and flog him up hill and down dale. There appears to be no public sentiment at all in the matter, and the fatalities at Napier give occasion for the suggestions made in regard to the periodical examination of both drivers and horses.