HEAVY TRAFFIC BILL.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 3009, 5 October 1908, Page 4

HEAVY TRAFFIC BILL.

The idea is prevalent in Dunedin that the Heavy Traffic Bill has been "pitchforked" together by people who, while, knowing little about the matter, have not thought it worth while to consult those who do. Mr E. F. Duthie, of tbj New Zealand Express' Company, when interviewed on the matter, immediately drew attention to schedule 3, setting out the maximum load that any vehicle may carry. He read as follows: —"Width of tires, 2Jin; maximum load, three tons," and then lower down, "No vehicle having tires less than 2£in shall carry any greater load than half a ton." This, he said, in itself paved the way for all kinds of anomalies. A vehicle with 2£in tires could carry its three tons, while one with a tire of a fraction of an v inch less was limited to half-a-ton., As an example of the serious effect certain provisions of, the measure would have on express traffic, Mr Duthie pointed out that ljin tires were used for express cr.rts and all light vehicular traffic, yet the Bill provided that no vehicle having tires narrower than 2£in shall carry a load exceeding half-a-ton. The obvious result would be that the entire "low" vehicular traffic: in Dunedin would have to be remodelled by fitting new wheels to all the vehicles. He condemned the measure as a whole, and other au f b:>rities characterised it as a series of mistakes.