HIGH-SPEED TOUR

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 90, 10 January 1935, Page 10

HIGH-SPEED TOUR

Royal Itinerary Criticised INCIDENTS ON WEST COAST SECTION It would seem that the tour of the Duke of Gloucester through New Zealand has been so hurried and so crowded with engagements that, in the parts where cars are used as transport, it has been necessary to drive between stopping places at a very high, and often dangerous, speed, says the Christchurch “Sun.”

It is said that as much as 75 m.p.h. was registered by the Royal cars in one part of the North Island tour the journey between Wairoa and Gisborne —and that the trip was done in exactly half the usual time for service cars, and although such speed as that has not yet been seen in the South Island, an average of nearly 30 m.p.h. was maintained on the journey between Nelson and Greymouth, and this on one of the most exacting drives in the country. The distance is 240 miles and it contains the Buller Gorge and the Hope Saddle, to mention two features cnly which demand special care and slow speeds from the motorist. The speed at which the party entered Nelson was 55 m.p.h. In the Buller Gorge there was almost a serious accident to one of the cars in the Royal party, and later on in the trip catastrophe almost overtook another of the cars when it skidded. A third incident of the journey was the ditching of yet another of the cars. Yet these incidents did not prevent the party from reaching its terminus for the day within scheduled time.

The first excitement of the journey arose when, after the cars had entered into the Buller Gorge, the car with the Minister of Internal Affairs (the Hon. J. A. Young) inside moved up to regain the place in the procession which it had lost. So that rhe Minister’s car could pass, a car containing two mechanics moved over toward the side of the road. It went too far. Instead ;>f ferns on the outer edge of the road having solid ground beneath them they nad only the chasm of the gorge, and both the left hand wheels of the car sank through the ferns and over the edge of the road. The car hung poise 1 for a second, as if about to topple right over the brink, but the undergear of the car caught 'the edge of the road, and the edge proved strong enough to hold the weight of the car and its occupants. The latter wasted no time in scrambling out, while others, jumping from their vehicles, held the car in its insecure position until a rope was found and it was pulled back to safety. Almost Over the Edge. Later in the day the Royal cars were nearing Greymouth along the Coast Road when, at the bottom of a slope not far from Point Elizabeth, there was the sound of screaming brakes and skidding. The cars were travelling at about 40 m.p.h., and one of them, containing detectives, had skidded on a turn and almost gone over a bank, with a drop of about 100 ft. below it. The car stopped just as one wheel was over the brink, The driver had somehow managed to slew his car enough to avoid hurtling over the edge; but tjiere was nearly a collision between the car following behind and the car which had almost gone over the edge. At another stage on this eventful journey, another of the Royal cars went into a ditch at Inangahua, the two left wheels sinking into a deep gutter, so that the car tilted at a sharp angle and almost rolled right over. However, it was pulled out without damage. A Whirl of Dust. In consequence of this rush, all that many persons in the back country, who have probably travelled far and waited long for the purpose, have been able to see of the Duke is a line of cars rushing past in a whirl of dust —travelling so fast that at the best only the merest glimpse could be caught of the man to whom they had come to pay their respects. And if the people on the roadside can see little of the Duke, how much can the Duke see of them or of the beautiful scenery through which he is passing? All along the route from Nelson to Greymouth there were little groups of persons who had turned out lo see the Duke, and they waved flags and cheered as the dust cloud went by. The trouble to which some of them had gone to make their demonstrations effective was touching: in the middle of the Buller Gorge, for instance, a banner had been stretched across the road bearing words of welcome, and bunting and placards had been hung on posts. With a wave of his hand the Duke flashed past, and in a second or two was out of sight.

Once or twice on the trip the Duke had the cars stopped so that lie might admire the scenery;-but these breaks always necessitated even higher speed from then on in order that the average migh be maintained and the official schedule obeyed.