First Day of the New By-Law and How it was Observed The new Municipal regulation bidding patrons of the tramways to ride on the footboard came into force on Monday; that is to say, came into force technically. For necessity knows no by-law, and where two or three score of Chinese are gathered together in the hope of obtaining street transport, it is by no means certain that the letter and the spirit of the new ordinance will be,. faithfully observed. he regulation is an excellent one, in the interests of the Chinese themselves, for many of them in the past have taken fearful and wonderful risks in their determination to board already over-crowded trams, and the records of the coroner's court show that a seat inside the car is worth two (inches of space) on the footboard.
Due warning has been given that offenders against the new by-law will be prosecuted, but the Traffic Department has long since found the public to be slow in assimilate ing its wisdom, and a gentle tact in enforcing the rule will doubtless be practised. There is no information to hand at the moment that the cells of various police stations are filled with footboard fiends captured yesterday. No spectacular attempt made by the police to inaugurate the new law. It would have given point to the occasion, and have afforded pleasant variation from routine, to have seen the Nanking Road lined with constables on the alert and ready to pluck hangers-on from the perilous sides of passing cars, but no such dutiful diversion was staged. The Tramway Company also missed a nice opportunity of bringing home to the public the enormity of the new footboard offence. Why not have had a nicely designed placard: attached to all cars, giving a suitably portentous warning:
"If you stand on the footboard to-day, you may stand in the Dock to-morrow.""
As it was, there was just the ordinary kind of announcement, to the effect that footboard trespassers will most certainly be prosecuted, and no one seemed in the least excited, or even interested. Indeed, many people failed to observe the notice board at all; we are positive this was so in the case of two Chinese police constables who footboarded it some distance down Nanking Road. In the absence of official statistics, we estimate that the footboards were used yesterday only to about 30 per cent. of their normal carrying capacity. Those who used them seemed to be quite comfortable. In due course we may find the footboard entirely deserted, but the police will perhaps do wisely to let the public down gently in the matter of pro-. sections, since it is bound to take Chinese some little time to get accustomed to loss of a hard won privilege.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.