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Radio.—Special appeals were made over both the National and Commercial network prior to holiday periods, and these were supplemented by special road safety " spot" announcements at those periods. A number of road safety features were broadcast weekly over the Commercial Stations. These have now been discontinued. Posters. —Two main posters carrying road safety messages were widely displayed at appropriate periods and two sets of smaller posters were produced for local use during safety drives. Screen Slides.—Screen slides were shown at one hundred and fifty theatres throughout New Zealand and changed periodically according to the publicity programme. Films. —No new traffic films have been produced for adult audiences, but several appropriate films have been obtained from overseas, and these have been shown to different groups in various centres by the Road Traffic Instructors. The Instructors, whose work is primarily with the school pupils, are frequently invited to address adult groups at luncheons and at evening functions. Leaflets. —Certain of the newspaper advertisements and other material of an informative nature have been distributed as leaflets by traffic officers and automobile associations. Road Code. —This was reprinted in 1946, but the supply of 200,000 copies printed has been practically exhausted and a new edition is in hand. Traffic Safety Weeks.—Local campaigns, combining educative propaganda and traffic enforcement, have been conducted at New Plymouth, Timaru, and Oamaru. In one instance the week coincided with the national traffic safety drive conducted by the Junior Chambers of Commerce. Other Organizations.—Road safety publicity has been continued by other organizations, notably the automobile associations, the N.I.M.U. Insurance Co., the Junior Chambers of Commerce, and certain companies associated with motoring. D. ROAD TRAFFIC INSTRUCTION IN SCHOOLS Visits of uniformed Instructors to the schools have continued throughout the year. The Transport Department employs seven trained men exclusively upon this work, and, in addition, a few of the municipalities send a traffic officer to the schools periodically. A large number of schools, particularly in the North Island, are also visited and pupils instructed by officers of the automobile associations. These visits serve to supplement the regular instruction in " Safety First" which is given by the class-room teacher. The Departmental Instructors and some of the automobile association men utilize motion picture films to illustrate the points they are dealing with. The Department has embarked upon a programme of film production for this purpose, and during the year the National Film Unit produced two short films for use in the schools. One of these dealt with cycling and the other with the school bus, having particular regard to the hazard that occurs when pupils dart across behind or in front of the bus into the path of another vehicle. It is generally felt that school pupils of to-day have learned a good deal about the rules of the road. Nevertheless, no reduction in accidents has resulted during the past few years, and there is in fact an upward trend in the numbers of youthful casualties. While the total number of pedestrians (adult and child) who were traffic casualties during 1947 was somewhat less than in 1946, there were seven more children between the ages of five and fifteen years injured last year than in 1946. Accidents among school-children as cyclists also have shown a substantial increase each year since 1945.

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