NOTES.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19179, 9 December 1927, Page 4

NOTES.

Should sufficient inducement offer so far as motor-care are concerned the Canterbury Automobile Association has arranged with the Railway Department for a special train to leave Springfield at 2 p.m. on Saturday, December 24th for Otira, taking passengers and cars. Such an arrangement will enable motorists to be in Hokitika or Greymouth on Saturday evening.

Contracts 1, 2, and 3 of the reconstruction of the road from Rolleston to the Rakaia river are almost completed. A start has been made on No. 4 contract. No. 6 contract, from Rolleston to Burnham, has been let to the British Pavements. A start has been made with lengthening the four concrete culverts on No. 5 contract between the Selwyn and Dunsandel, the work being carried out by day labour with the bridge gang, satisfactory progress being made. "I wish to make it clear that on a road constructed as this road is, with bitumon down its centre and metal on either side, a motorist has, in my opinion, no right to hold on to the bitumen if by so doing he may endanger others on the highway," said Mr E Page, S.M., in the Magistrate's Court. Wellington, this week, in giving judgment in a Hutt road collision case.

The 11-2 miles of road from the Selwyn railway station to the Rakaia river were maintained last month • by grading the five miles from the Selwyn towards the Rakaia river; the balance to the Rakaia River, comprising Nos 1, 2, and 3 contracts for reconstruction, is well in hand and nearing completion. The recent wet week has delayed the work.

Mr Fred B. Sides export manager of the Hupp. Motor-Car Corporation, has started the second lap of the trip that calls for his personal inspection of automotive conditions in the British Isles, Continental Europe, Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. This extensive journey will consume from five to six months, and is being made to afford Mr Sides first-hand knowledge of what the peoples of other lands think regarding motor-car transportation. Mr Sides will visit practically every Hupmobile distributor in the countries listed in his itinerary.

A tender has been accepted for a concrete Bridge, Sheffield-Arundel, via ihe Rakaia Gorge highway in the Ashburton County.

At mid-day on September Ist the memWship of the Automobile Association (England) passed 350,000. Every A.A. member is a direct subscriber, the Association having no affiliation arrangements with other motoring bodies. It is, therefore, the largest organisation of motorists in the world, with a membership steadily increasing at the rate of 50,000 per annum.

Plans have been approved for strengthening three bridges between "Waiareka and Ngapara (Waitaki County). Plans and specifications for the Lambrook bridge (Kaikoura County) are nearing completion.

A German inventor has patented an arrangement whereby two epeedo meters can be driven from the gearbox One is placed in front pi the driver in the usual way, while the other, fitted with an abnormally large dial, is arranged at the rear end of the vehicle so that it can easily be read by passers-by-or, presumably, by the driver of a car which has just been overtaken. American motor vehicle exports for 1927 are estimated to reach wv,wu units by Mr A. Reeves, general manager of the National Automobile Chamber of Commerce, who has returned to the United States after seven weeks spent in investigation of motor transport m Europe. Mr Reeves declares that within two years America's exports should attain a rate of 1,000,000 motor vehicles a year.

The building of approach banks to the Parikawa motor bridge (Awatere County) has been completed. The Little Linton Creek bridge (Kaikoura County) and approach banks have been completed and opened for all traffic.

An English journal reports that the sudden collapse of a road after a bus had passed was found to be due to the activities of large rats below the surface. On the road in question—that from Bromley to Bickley—there was also a subsidence through the same cause.

Deeming free petrol to be a logical inducement for motorists to invest in furniture, a large concern in the Connecticut town of Hartford advertises 50 gallons of free "juice" with ©very purchaso of £lO. The furniture concern points out that this represents a saving of 24 per cent.

It is stated that a new road surface now being tested in France consists of heavy iron plates riveted to a concrete base.

In recognition of having amassed a huge fortune, an 88-year-old settler in lowa has given a donation to the State in the form of an all concrete road 10$ miles in length, which will run past his homestead and cost £62,000.

MASS PRODUCTION.

POSITION IN PRANCE. Just how deeply the idea of mass production has taken hold of the French automotive manufacturers may be judged by a recent report from the Department of Commerce to the effect that automotive manufacturers in France, have got together, and are working on a plan to standardise automobile parts. It has been decided to establish a "Bureau of Normalisation," corresponding to the Bureau of Standards or the standardisation committee of the Society of Automotive Engineers, U.S.A. Any one who has delved at all deeply into the French automotive industry will realise just how revolutionary this new idea is. Hitherto manufacturing in France lias been carried on under conditions of the utmost secrecy —individual manufacturers have hidden their designs as far as possible; they have considered every process of manufacture as a "trade secret" to be jealously guarded. If this new move indicates a growing spirit of co-opera-tion among French manufacturers, it is going to give a tremendous impetus to the industry as a whole. In America the National Automobile Chamber of Commerce has shown what can be done by co-opcration, patent licensing, etc., ; but without any relaxing of healthful competition. I