Motor Vehicles;

Noumea Has Too Many

Too Many Bad Drivers

Prom Our Own Correspondent

Noumea, June 15.

WHEN the Caledonien arrives at the end of June she will bring a near-record cargo of 71 new cars to be added to the 5,600 already in New' Caledonia; and traffic hazards will be increased proportion ately.

If the present rate of importation continues. Noumea streets will soon become impassable. There are daily peak-hour traffic jams now. and the rapid increase in accidents is worrying the authorities. There is at least one accident a day, and nearly every holiday brings a fatality.

Too many cars, and inexpert, speeding and careless drivers are being blamed. Police have been given orders to control traffic more strictly and the number of “tickets” being handed out shows how seri ously they are taking them.

Not the least danger on the road are the Tonkinese drivers. They are a menace to other peoples’ lives and their own. They appear to be devoid of sane reactions and go into a panic at the first sign of a traffic hazard.

No New Hebridean resident will quarrel with the statement that a Tonkinese on a bicycle is bad enough, but that behind a steering wheel he is a public menace. With his increasing prosperity, he is to be found at the wheel of fast, murder ous cars. He is often contemptuous of the law and thinks nothing of driving without a licence.