MOTOR NOTES

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 103, 25 January 1935, Page 15

MOTOR NOTES

Ngahauranga’s Smells , New City Entrance

(By Headlight.) Complaints have been voiced several times lately, mostly by visitors to Wellington, about the marring ol the entrance to the city from the Manawatu and west coast by the smells from the meat works at Ngahauranga, nut it is not generally realised that this disability is to be removed to some extent, by' the opening in a few months of the new highway between Khamlallah and Johnsonville. The utilitarian advantages of this new route have been emphasised already. It has been pointed out that it will be an alternative in case the present main highway becomes blocked, but to the motorist in ordinary times, its attractions will be scenic. The approaches to Wellington from the west coast by both road and rail are scenically dramatic. After travelling through country which gives no hint that one is approaching a large centre one suddenly comes out of a tunnel, in the case of ' the railway, and swings round a corner, in the case of the road, into full view of Port Nicholson with the mountains beyond it and the suburbs of the city covering the nearer hills. Both by day and by night it is an interesting drive. The smells are not as bad as they used to be, for in addition to the meat works at Ngahauranga there was a boiling down works further south, but the latter ceased to generate etiuvia several years ago. No doubt it would be possible to conduct the smells, which are one of the numerous by-products of the freezing of meat, up a high chimney and so lessen their tendency to hang about the ground in calm weather, just as it would be possible to improve the appearance of the Ngahauranga establishment, but as the complirnants are only those who whisk past in a few seconds, and could hold their breaths through the smell zone, sufficient public support to enforce a change is' not likely to be forthcoming. A vital industry is not likely to be hindered because of the offence it gives to the delicate senses of some people. Those who object to passing through Ngahauranga on their way to or from Wellington will soon have as an alternative route one of the most pleasant drives in the suburbs‘of the city. So ■far as approaching the city is concerned, if the full plans of the Public Works Department are carried out the traveller will traverse a picturesque residential and farming district by broad roads without heavy grades or sharp turns, and join the Hutt Road at Kaiwarra.

Instead of crossing the railway at ths north of Johnsonville and descending the Ngahauranga Gorge, the traveller by road will keep to the right of the railway all the way to south of Khandallah. The new highway will be practically level and straight through Johnsonville and the high rolling country to the south of the town. This new road which joins Johnsonville anJ Khandallah is such a great improvement on the old tortuous precipitous track that one cannot help wondering why it was not the route first chosen.

Through Khandallah and Ngaio the country is undulating, but nt the former suburb a choice of routes to Wellington will be presented—the wellknown Onslow road, which winds down the hillside to the harbour from the electric sub-station, and the road through Ngaio and down the Kaiwarra Gorge. Onslow road is slightly the shorter, and gives magnificent views of the harbour and the city, but the Kaiwarra Gorge has its attractions also, including glimpses of native bush such as are not common now. The Kaiwarra Gorge Road is by no means of main highway standard, but is sufficiently developed to carry the considerable traffic of the suburbs, which includes buses. CORRUGATED ROADS Speed Gives Comfort. A Wellington motorist who has returned to his home after a tour of tiie North Island has remarked on the “irritating corrugations” he encountered in some places. Drivers of cars about Wellington should congratulate themselves that it is necessary for a resident of the city to go for a holiday tour to become acquainted with this kind of road. Before the main roads were paved there were specimens in the district but now corrugations are something the newer Wellington driver does not know—like non-detachable wheels and starting cranks. Corrugations are common enough about Auckland where there are still some unpaved roads carrying fairly heavy traffic, but the Hauraki Plains has had the best examples. On the long, straight roads across that former swamp, there have been miles on end of corrugations worked up by fast cars. To those used to them they are less of an irritation than to drivers who have not discovered that the only way to counter them is to go fast. This seems paradoxical. Generally .the faster one hits a bump the worse it feels, but cor.rugations are different from isolated bumps. At very slow speeds are corrugations may not be felt and not be consplcuous in the daylight, lint as the speed is increased the ear seems more and more in danger of shaking to pieces. There is a speed, however, at which the car seems to skim over the tops of the waves and the reverberations disappear, and this speed must be attained if one is to make satisfactory progress along a corrugated road. MOTOR-CYCLE SHOW Machine Given Minister When the nineteenth International Bicycle and Motor-cycle Show was opened at Olympia, London, by Mr. I-lore-Belisha, Minister of Transport, he was presented with a bicycle, a gift from the British Cycle and Motor-cycle Manufacturers’ and Traders’ Union, by whom the show was promoted. Next day another bicycle, a red One, was presented by the union to “The Girl in Red,” otherwise Miss Nita Ross* lyn, of Manchester. On this machine She proposes to tour the world for the next four years, riding through South Africa, Australia, and fc’ew Zealand, and returning by way of the Unite* States. The show affords a comprehensive survey of all kinds of two wheeled and three-wheeled pedal and motorvehicles, tires, components, anil accessories (stated “The Times”). Among accessories may perhaps be classed the sidecars. There is a new "fold-up”

sidecar for pedal cycles and tandemsdesigned witli an eye to the new Road Act regulation, which makes It an offence to carry a child on any bicycle not specially made for the purpose. Among safety devices for cyclists are a pair of white cuffs carrying red reflectors and ruby reflectors fitted into the handle grips. Stainless steel rims and chromium-piated spokes are fitted to some models as a safeguard against rust.

There is evidence that some makers of motor-cycles are endeavouring to make their products quieter on the road. A company exhibit a 1935 model, which was selected from stock by a representative of the Auto-cycle Union for tests made a few days ago. The inotpr-cycle was driven past an audiometer at the junction of Gray’s Inn Road and Theobald's’ Road, and emerged with credit from a comparison with other street noises The first multi-cylinder motor-cycle to cover 100 miles in .an hour was shown. By this performance the machine has secured the “Motor Cycle” Cup, after '36 unsuccessful attempts to win the cup since it was first offered about five years ago. This exceptionally fast machine is shortly to be placed on the market as a standard production. An interesting vehicle is the Wliitwood Monocar, a two-seater which runs on two wheels and is supported when at rest by two other wheels, let down on either side by moving a lever inside the body. A new horizontal twin witli <i machine-shaft drive lias atl moving parts enclosed. The Minister of Transport, declaring the show opep, said it was true that for some years the production of motorbicycles had been declining, but lhe first nine months of 1934 had reversed that tendency Between January ami September this year, as compared witn last, there was an increase of over 6000 —nearly 20 per cent. —in the number o’ new motor-cycles registered in Great Britain. In the output of pedal bicycles, on the other hand, there bad b6en an* almost unchecked rise until they had reached an annual figure of 1,500,000 —two and a half times greater than the figure of 10 years ago