MOTORS and MOTORING.
BY
"SPOTLIGHT.”
DIVIDING THE COST
lIOW MOTOR-TAXPAYERS LOSE A U TOM 081 LE A SSOCI ATI ONS •ASLEEP. As everyTiodf knows who has been over it, the- main road between Nelson and Blenheim is verv twistv, ami over the Whangamoa and Rai Saddles the traveller encounters innumerable very sharp corners on the siding run along the precipitous hillsides. 'l'he improvement of this road has been under consideration by the Main Highways Board for a considerable lime past. The road is in Waimea County, which controls the area on both sides of Nelson City, and it provides the only direct connection between Nelson and Marlborough provinces. It carries a large through traffic between Nelson and Blenheim ami Canterbury, and is a vital link in joining up Nelson Province with the rest of the South Island.
In view of these facts, the attitude adopted by Waimea County towards the improvement of the road is so extraordinary as to deserve attention. The county, while clamouring incessant'v lor the improvement of the road by the Main Highways Board itself, refuses on the other hand to regard it as more than a riding road. That is to say, the county leaves the ratepayers in the rugged and sparsely settled Whangamoa riding to shoulder all the cost of providing communication between Nelson and Marlborough and Canterbury provinces on this section of the sole available land route. As a result of this incredible parsimony, the improvement of the road has been held up for years. That a niggardly short-sighted local bodv should have power thus to bold up main highway improvements for years on end shows clearly what a hamstrung allair the main highways scheme is. Waimea County has been very favourably treated indeed by the Main Highways Board in connection with this road. Pretty well ever since the inception of the scheme the board has paid three-quarters of the maintenance cost of the toad from the laid to the Rai Saddle. The remaining quarter of the cost the county has dumped on to the local settlers m the riding, and the Nelson district as a whole has scarcely paid one penny piece tor this link in its valuable connection with Marlborough and Canterbury.
'Cowards the improvement of the road the Main Highways Board has offered to find three-quarters of the £lO,OOO required. This leaves the trifling sum of £2500 for the county to find. 'The county, however, refuses to find it, and believes apparently that if it does nothing for long enough either the Highways Board or somebody else will find the motley. The same game is being played by other local bodies in other parts of the Dominion, and the amazing thing is that the automobile associations and motor unions have never yet lifted a finger to protect motor tax-
payeih’ iiitvrests in this connection Most ot these bodies have no grip whatsoever of roailing finance, mid' although New Zealand motorists are now Stiffly taxed the automobile organisations have so far proved quite useless in seeing that they get a lair go for their money.
Waimea counit has a rateable capital value of over £3,o<JU,ijijl>, am] it is utter rubbish for it to contend that it cannot bear the cost ol £2snt> towards improving the decidedly dangerous corners in tins interproviiicial highway. It is utter rubbish also for it to sav that its ratepayers have not £2500 worth of interest in the improvement ol the road.
If the automobile associations knew a bee Irom a bull’s fool about roading finance the .Main Highways Act would have long' ago contained a provision empowering the board to assess a county’s contribution towards work of tiiis nature, and to go ahead with the work and collect the county's share. There would, of course, be a right ot appeal by a couutv which thought itself overcharged, but there would be no indefinite holding up of necessary road improvements because of penny farthing mentality on the part of local bodies. The Victorian and New South Wales main roads boards have long had this power, and it is worth noting that very few appeals are ever proceeded with.
It may be argued that if the Highways Board had power to assess local bodies with contributions for construction work it would be freeing them to borrow. There is not the least neeessitv for this. The total capital sum required for the work could quite well bi; raised by the board, and the local body merely charged with an annual contribution sufficient to wipe out its share in an appropriate number of years. In Waimea County’s case this would mean an assessment of, say £2OO a tear for 21 years. While the Main Highways Board is doing its best in the Waimea County case to secure a reasonably fair distribution of the cost between the road user and the district, the Nelson Automobile Association cannot be congratulated on the wav it is backing the board up. So far from stressing the fact that the provision of three-quar-ters of the niaiiitenaiiec and construction costs on the road by the motortaxpayer is a generous contribution, and that the conntv should find the balance without delay, the Nelson A.A. has written to the Alain Highways Board urging it practicallv to find the whole sum. This is an amazing policy’ for an automobile association—a body whose ostensible object is to protect the interests of motor taxpayers. If tne Highways Board caved in sitnilarlv all over the country motorists would soon find themselves paying a shilling a gallon tax on petrol. The motor taxpayer will never get value for his money so long as the automobile associations go about things in this fashion.
The difficulty in drilling thin metal is due to the fact that the pomt of the drill loses guidance immediately it emerges at the back, and the hole consequently becomes irregular in shape. A way of overcoming this ia to clamp the work again a thicker piece of old metal, and to continue drilling until lhe point of the drill passes into the second piece of metal.
A DEAD LETTER ENDORSEMENT V. SI SI’ENSION OF LICENSES. New Zealand’s Motor Vehicles Act is modelled on that in force in Britain, and among the provisions copied from the British Act is one providing for the endorsement of licenses. So far as can be ascertained this clause of the Act has remained a dead letter pretty well throughout the Dominion, and seemingly to the disadvantage ol motorists. In this country motor drivers have their licenses to drive cancelled and suspended more freely probably than in any other part of the world. No statistics on tins point are available, but ffom perusal of the New Zealand and English newspapers it would seem that in proportion to the number of motor drivers on the roads the ratio of suspensions must be several hundred per cent, greater here than in Britain. Whether Ute standard of driving is that much lower in this Dominion than elsewhere is open to question,
While the courts have thus made full and free use' of the power to suspend and disqualify motor drivers, they have, on the whole, completely ignored the 1 power to endorse driving licenses. UnC der section 22 of the Act it is laid down that when any person is convicted of an offence under the Act (other than a first or second offence of exceeding any limit of speed) the court may “cause particulars of the conviction and any order of the court made under this section to be endorsed thereon, and on any such license that may thereafter be issued to him during the next succeeding period of three years, and may also cause a copy of those particulars to be sent to the local authority by whom the license so endorsed has been granted. In Britain this provision in the law is used extensitely, rind it appears to be applied in a large percentage of cases of the class which arc dealt with here by suspension from driving. So far as can be gathered. the British practice is that endorsement conics before suspension—except, of course, in the most glaring cases of recklessness, in cases that call lor something more than a fine, and where the driver has shown a tendency to recklessness, the magistrates in Britain will ordetj particulars of tile conviction to be endorsed oil the license. A driver with an indorsed license on his next appearance may expect: a heavier fine than one with a dean license. In a general way a driver who has two endorsements on his license runs a very good chance of being suspended if he appears in court on any but the most trivial charge dnw ing the three-year period within which lhe endorsements remain. It will thus be seen that the endorsing of licenses is an important feature in the administration of the law in Britain, out although embodied in our Act is a complete wash-out here. If a New Zealand magistrate wishes to impose any penalty further titan a fine his sole thought is usually of suspension. The half-way house of endorsement might as well not exist. There is little doubt that innumerable cases in which licenses have been suspended ill this country could have been .imply met by endorsement. A man with an endorsed license in Britain is usually very careful indeed not to run into dan-
ger of a second endorsement, and, as a rule, only where endorsement proves ineffective as a curb is cancellation and suspension called for in the public interest.
TIMID DRIVERS HOW THEY CAUSE ACCIDENTS. It hardly seems possible that timidity can get a motor vehicle operator into trouble, yet it often does. Writing of this point recently, Mr. Robbins Stocckel, commissioner of motor vehicles fit Connecticut, remarked that timidity as a proximate cause of accidents is possibly more characteristic of women than of niett. The kind of timidity referred to is not 'synonymous with fear. It may be better designated as undue apprehension, that is allowing oneself to throw the imagination ahead into direful things winch may happen. Possibly it can be described as “daytime nightmare.” A typical example of what is meant was developed at a hearing where the culprit was a wellknown woman. She said, in explaining several slight accidents all of which were collisions from the rear, “I am a very careful driver, I usually stop short before going across an intersection.” What happened to her was that when she arrived at a crossing, where there was considerable traffic, her imagination would construct all kinds of difficulties ahead so that she would suddenly conclude that she did not dare go across, and then would stop so quickly that there was insufficient warning to persons following, with the result that she caused traffic emergencies for those persons and consequently these accidents.
The probable action of another operator always has to be discounted when driving a motor vehicle. Any person operating knows that he utay expect that all other cars which he meets, going in the opposite direction, will turn to the right and allow a "reasonable and equal opportunity to pass. Similarly when attempting to pass from the rear, co-operation is expected to the extent that the car being passed will go far enough to the side to allow safe passage. So that in some cases where timidity has caused an accident it often appears that the normal driving action of another has been put aside, as an expectation by a conclusion that it will not be normal. The imagination of the timid person constructs fancied trouble, which at once becomes more predominant in his mind than the perception of the action which he may expect from another.
Timiditv of this kind can be overcome. 'lhe mind can be held strictly I<> its task and when reason directs certain operation it is safe to go ahead with it in the full expectation that every one else will reasonably do his part.
When a lighting fuse "blows’ it should not be replaced with a new one until the cause of the trouble is located and remedied. The cause is usually a short circuit. The insulation of electric cables should be examined for frays which expose the wire. I’rayed cables should be bound up with insulation tape.
AMATEUR PAINTING NEW ERA IN SMARTENING CARS. Brush-on cellulose lacquers belong to an entirely new paint-world. They are one of the latest, and perhaps one of the greatest triumphs of the modern indusrial chemist. They consist basic- ( ally of celluloid dissolved m amyl acetate, having the familiar “pear-drop smell; one speaks of them as lacquers, and looks upon them as varnish colours made with celluloid varnish instead of the ordinary kind. Cellulose lacquers are remarkably easy to use, and work under the brush very much like enamels. They would appear to he ideal for all the little odd jobs about a car that an amateur often wishes to carry out himself, such as touching up control rods, painting toolboxes, and the hundred and one things for which one has hitherto used enamel. On the body of a car it is as essential to have a good surface for cellulose, as it is for paint or enamel. The necessity for rubbing down prior to any kind of painting is not fully realised until one has had some little cxperience. The old paint must be perfectly hard and dry; cellulose will blister new paint. This can scarcely be reckoned a disadvantage, for no one would want to cellulose a new painted car. to the same reason it would not be advisable to use coachpainters’ stopping. Stopping made of celluloid can be obtained from the cellulose Ia ?TX manufacturers, and shallow chipped places can be filled with repeated of cellulose exactly in the d pP r^. s ®’°X so bringing them up level with the res of the surface. As it dries m an hour, these repeated doses—there m . be three or four—are no P artic drawback. In working with these paints one has constantly to be reminding oneself that it is not enamel, 'and that it has nothing to do with paint. Its ways are different. Brusl es for example, must not be cleaned with turps. When wet they clean y well with hot water and soap. If they have dried the makers’ special solvent or thinners will clean them; or tl y can be placed in the cellulose for a few minutes to soften them. . . It is best to buy all the material fo a job from one maker, and to use als the brushes supplied by the same con-
cern. If one has to purchase a brusn, one may as well have one e sP ecla *Y suited to the consistency of cellulose; some cellulose is a little thicker than others, as is the case with enamels. It is quite a small point, perhaps, but worth mentioning as one occurring in actual experience. The brushes supplied are soft, and wi ones are recommended. Ihe makers printed instructions should be followed, as far as one can, but here, again, prac- I tical experience shows that considerable I latitude is possible. All makers seem I agreed upon the desirability of a full, flowing coat, which means thte brush should be deeply dipped, and the excess lightly scraped off on the edge of the tin. This gives a full brush, with- I out any dropping off between the tin and the work. The cellulose is applied quite lightly, no heavy pressure being laid upon the brush, neither should it be dragged or daubed about in all direc- I tions. The aim is to lay it where it is I wanted and leave it there. As begin- I ners generally put paint on much too I thickly, they should be nearly right at once with cellulose. Too much is m- I dicated by the paint going in “runs.” If it should, leave them; they will rub down easily, and can be touched in and surfaced without leaving any traces. I This is one of the advantages of cellulose. It is paint and varnish in one, alike all through. INSTALMENT SELLING 'AN AMERICAN INVESTIGATION. About a year and a half ago Professor Edwin R. A. Seligman, Columbia University, U.S.A., undertook the most exhaustive study ever made of instalment selling. His conclusions, recently made public, are that instalment selling is not only a sound method of financing the distribution, of merchandise, but it has proved to be one of the most potent agencies in creating the great prosperity of the United States, and one which has increased production, stabilised out- I put, reduced . production cost, and increased purchasing power throughout the entire nation. . As related to the automobile industry, the soundness of such financing and its ’effect is cbvions, to quote Professor Seligman: “If every motor-car buyer had been obliged to accumulate enough cash to pay the entire purchase price before beginning to enjoy the use of a car, I doubt if there would now be even 10,000,000 cars in use. And certainly no 'such stimulation of the country’s prosperity as has resulted from the growth of the automobile industry could have been possible.” THE CARELESS FIVE PER CENT. Although there are more than a million careless and reckless motorists throughout the United States, the number constitutes only about five per cent, of the total number of drivers, estimates Mr. Charles E. Hill, vice-president of the American National Safety Council, who states: . “About 95 per cent, of the motorists of this country are reasonably careful. The remaining 5 per cent., however, represents a large army of more than a million reckless and incompetent drivers flitting about the country without any regard for the safety of themselves or their fellow men. They include drivers who are deaf, blind, of immature age, enfeebled condition due to old age, those who are intoxicated, and then there are those that are analogous to the farmer’s mule.’-’ BRITAIN’S CAR EXPORT In the eleven months of 1927 up to December, Britain exported overseas 1d,441 complete motor-cars and cabs, and imported 18,004 cars, mostly from the United States. The British exports in the corresponding period of the previous years were 13,321 in 1926, and 15 824 in 1925. Car imports in the same periods were 9836 and 32,163 respectively.
If the radiator cap leaks constantly and -excessively, though you are sure that the washer is not “chewed up, run a wire through the overflow pipeThe chances are that it is clogged, thus offering the system no outlet except round the radiator cap or neck. Relining brake bands is always the complete cure for faulty brake action. When cars have had extensive service, and particularly where they have. been abused, it may be necessary to install new brake drums. The cost of new drums is the penalty for running with the brake lining so badly worn that the rivets scrape the drums every time the car is in the process of stopping. When carrying out the greasing and oiling of the chassis it is a good idea to applv a few drops of fairlv thin oil to the various swivelling joints of the hood bows. This prevents rust forming at the joints and causing the hood to work stifflv. A minimum of oil should be applied, or it mav run oft the joints pxt to the hood material*
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Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 125, 24 February 1928, Page 14
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3,240MOTORS and MOTORING. Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 125, 24 February 1928, Page 14
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