ELECTRICAL TRANSPORT

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 113, 5 February 1918, Page 6

ELECTRICAL TRANSPORT

EXPERIENCE IN CHRISTCHURCH. The development of electric transport is discussed by Mr. L. Birks in an articlo contributed to the January number of the new official publication, tho "New Zealand Journal of Science and Technology." Mr. Birks quotes some figures showing the experience of Christchurch people in the use of elec-trically-propelled lorries. "In the application of electricity to railway transport New Zealand is still waiting," he says, "but in other countries maintenance costs have been cut down, more reliable services maintained, more frequent trains run, stations abolished, and frequent motor-trains run as a tramway service, stopping at all road-crossings. Fast expresses have been made faster with heavy electrical locomotives, and 800-ton mineraltrains increased in some cases up to 2500 tons on the same - grade and at better-Kcbcduled times; the smoke nuisance has been abolished, and roadside fires have been done away with. These possibilities are all available in Canterbury as soon as industrial and financial conditions will permit of the necessary conversion being undertaken.

"11l road transport even greater changes are to come. The petrol-car lias certainly rcaclmd a high state of development, and is very satisfactory. But it is still an explosion machine and an explosive machine: the production of power is violently intermittent and irregular. This rincts oil uthe lifo of the engine, chassise, body, and tyres, and on the comfort df the whole vehicle. The electric motor operated from a battery is the smoothest, steadiest, and most silent form of \wwcr possible. The cost of power at present prices is less than one-half of the cost of petrol, and the cost of repairs and maintenance proportionately low. It takes five minutes to learn all there is to learn in driving an electric car, and there is nothing to go wrong. From the national point of view it consumes only na tnral power from the mountains instead of petrol, for which we have to pledge our credit to a foreign nation, to the amount of 2s. Gd. for every gallon consumed.

"The petrol-lorry running, say, fifteen miles to the gallon, costs 2d. per mile for fuel only. The tery car or lorry is garaged, examined, and charged up every night by the Christchurch City Council at £30 to £G0 per year, according to capacity, ranging from J ton to 3 tons of load— i.e., from 2s. to 4s. per day, giving a daily range of sixty miles. Even if only forty-eight miles per day of this range can he utilised effectively the cost of electricity per mile run is only id. for a -J-ton lorry or car, and up to Id. for a 3-ton' lorry—a very substantial saving as compared with petrol. There are about a dozen such vehicles now in use in Christchurch for various purposes, and provision is being made in anticipation of this number increasing to five or six hundred in the near future. The Christchurch City Council has an electric-battery lorry for refuse and coal, which is not only propelled but also tipped by electric power. "The problem of economy in the domestic delivery of milk, bread, and other commodities is engaging the attention of our local economists. The ultimate solution of this problem will certainly bo expressed in terms of hydro-electric power."