THE MOTOR WORLD

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 13 September 1924, Page 16

THE MOTOR WORLD

SPARKS,

The colour scheme for marking the main Christchureh-Dunedin-Invercargill road is progressing, and at all points where roads intersect a branch oif the main road-is being indicated by yellow and black rings on the telegraph poles. The "YV aihi branch of the Auckland Automobile Association is taking steps \vith a view to motoring parties from the parent association visiting the M aihi beach during the coming season.

A proposal for a simultaneous “grand drive” for members throughout the South Island is being considered by the South Island Motor Union. The Canterbury A.A. has added over 600 members to its roll during the past year. A Christchurch man had his good looks spoiled temporarily on Sunday on the road to Rangiora. A deep pothole negotiated at many miles per hour caused his nose and forehead to connect with the hood work. He lost interest in the trip for a space. Recommendations for the improvement of a number of railway crossings in its district have been made by the Wanganui Automobile Association The improvements urged are mostly in the direction of cutting back trees and hedges, and setting back fences to give a, better view of the railway line. The Manawatu Daily Times recently devoted a page to an illustrated description of the Manawatu Gorge road on which the local bodies are spending neaily £40,000 in making the new 21- ™ ot built out from the side of the hill, and supported on concrete pi rril rs m some P laces 60 feet high. The modern dog apparently learns to know its owner’s car by the colour, lnat is all very well for the dog the owner of which has a car of a distinctive colour. Drop a tear for the canine which has to follow a Ford. An advertisement in a Christchurch paper recently, after describing two lost collie dogs, said: The above dogs followed a hord from the Canterbury Motor Depou, mistaking it for the owner’s. It has been said that a clever lawyer can drive a coach and four through almost any Act on the Statute Book,” remarked Mr A. C. Nathan at the last meeting of the Marlborough Automobile Association apropos of the Motor Vehicles Bill, now before Parliament. This drew from Dr. W. E. Redman the comment that Bills, as they were presented to the House, were usually oJain enough m their provisions, but by the time Parliament had chopped at and changed and amended them they were left with a different complexion altogether. In dignity: A horse with breast band niade of a tyre cover.

Why do so many motorists entirely neglect the lubrication of their car’s smo axle bushes? It is a vital point ter artoution. • 1

It one had a private armoured car it _ woind be possible to show some drivers what may happen when they ex,end Lie right arm and then turn lore.

California has the record for the number of population per car. The igure is 3.2, as against an average of seven people per car for the United stales.

Don’t use the term “traffic, con” in referring to that, fine body of men who .Tireet the traffic in cities. The corleet term is “traffic constable ” Why? The riddle of the centuries has been solved: A chicken crosses the roacl -nr the same reason that a motorist crosses railroad tracks without looking. •

It is estimated that fully one-half of the automobiles in use in Great Britain are imported, American cars leading with French and Italian in close second.

It gu. age floors are not kept clean and the tyres stand in a pool of oil, the treads soften and the traction strain m.service stretches the rubber in wavv outline.

A "V ienna motorist, ignoring a gendarme’s signal, was slashed in the arm by the officer’s sabre. Personally we prefer the British way of bleeding motorssts by taxation and fines. From the wreck of a smail obsolete automobile, a street car motorman of Fresno, California, has built at the cost of lo dollars a home-made tractor, which he operates on his farm. The competence of every driver should be approved before he is permitted to drive a motor* vehicle upon the public highway, is an automobile regulation urged by many traffic ’ experts.

, An application by the Essex County Council for the imposition of a teiimile speed limit on certain roads at Brentwood and Wanstead has been refused by the Minister of Transport, after careful enquiry. The quantity of motor spirit imported into Great Britain .during the first quarter of this year was 86,828,096 gallons, as compared with 69,846,284 gallons during the corresponding quarter of last, year—-an increase of 16,981,848 gallons.

The Council of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, the organisers of the Olympia Automobile Exhibition (Loudon) has resolved that the question of admitting German and Austrian goods to the show shall be deferred ufftil tlie reparations question has been settled. ’

TO PREVENT ACCIDENTS. Unfortunately there lias recently been an epidemic of motoring mishaps throughout the Dominion. On looking into statistics one finds that New Zealand lias, the year through, an average of more than one motoring fatality per week. , The question immediately arises: How do these figures compare with other countries? and, further: What steps can be taken to minimise the recurrence of such accidents? To the first question I would reply that I do not think the present position gives cause for undue alarm, as it has been conclusively proved that travelling, irrespective of the nature of the convej’anee, entails a certain risk to life and limb. Last year sixty-nine people in New Zealand lost their lives in railway accidents.

HOW TO GET INTO AND OUT OF A CAR.

An owner who takes any pride in his or her ear has every right to expect that friends invited for a .drive should take an equal interest and help to keep the vehicle in a spick-and-span condition and free from scratches. It is the writer’s experience that the ayerage

passenger does not even know how to eat into or out of a car, and even whenj ■ eited acts in such a manner that very often irreparable damage is caused to paintwork and upholstery alike. Very often the driver is equally at fault, showin.tr considerable clumsiness in gamine access to and leaving his seat. Dealing first with the faults of passengers, practically most of the

damage is done by getting in and out. It would seem, on the face of it, that there i s only one way, but it all depends on the design of the car and the width or the door entrance how this is accomplished. Take for an example a car that has a very restricted rear entrance and the doors shaped to the contour of the rear wings. It is perhaps easier to step on to the running board with the left foot first, then taking the right foot over the wing on to the floor of the compartment. If this procedure be adopted, it will result generally in the paint of the wing being damaged. The correct method is to step on to tlie running board, putting the right foot in first, followed by the left, which is farthest away from the mudguard.

In a car with such an awkward entrance it is only natural that the passenger is tempted to clutch hold of the door when making entrance or exit. 8-bis should be strictly avoided, for not only does it put a strain on the hinges, but it often results iu the door being wrenched as a result of ics flying back when the person puts his or her weight upon it. These remarks, of course, generally apply to a car in which the rear doors open towards the bonnet, for, when they are hung the opposite " a>, it is usually a. far easier matter not calling for any special, care, with the exception of keeping the feet clear of the. valances and. stepping right over paintwork between the " door and the valance.

Having gained access to the tonneau, do not forget that the cushions are upholstered in a similar manner to an expensive chair; they are stuffed with horse hair and coil springs, and when a heavy person falls down into, instead of sitting on the seat, in many cases damage may be done and the coils displaced. When lowering oneself into a sitting position, do not make use of the rear windscreen if one be fitted. It is bv no means an uncommon practice for this to be done and. although the first time might not result in any untoward damage, if constantly done it will tend to wrench the screen off its support or distort it in such a manner that it will not come into position prouerly when seated.

There is, again, a right and a wrong way of sitting. In the same manner as a good upholstered chair can be ruined by people sitting on the edge, so can the cushion of a- motor car. Sit right on the cushion, when it will be found that not only does the rear squab then give more restful support, but the cushion itself will come right up under the knees and so afford much relief in traveiling

A great many persons sit with their ogs crossed, but if the owner’s paintwork and upholstery are to be studied this is a practice that must strongly e condemned, because the road motion of the car is naturally imparted to the leg with the- result that it moves up and down the toe of the boot meanwhile catching the back of the front seats and doing ..damage to the leather upholstery; or, in the case of an elaborate enclosed car, to the panelling If .the car is equipped with* a footrest, then by all means use it. for it is put tiieis especially for the comfort of the occupants.

Another thing one sees frequently clone by a passenger is to step from the \Tl m " I° ai ' d °. ver into the comnartS In - Stead , ot S 01 »g to the trouble of opening the , door. This method, while perhaps being quite easy to accomphsh and saving opening and'elos1S s«re! to result in the paint-work being scratched in taking hf r,Rh * ? r fo °t, as the case may be over the edge of the body. Again m the majority of cases the passenger when entering the front seat generally manages to pull himself into the car y means of the windscreen and very ofwen does the same thing when rising trom } us seat Qr ] eav j n g car rjqperhaps, does not seem much of a crime, but if others* do the same it will sunnor? K - eSUIt i in the ""Screen suppoits being § o loosened as to rattle perhaps come adrift. When seated alongside the driver more pa.tmMa.K when central eoißreb be SU i' e t 0 g' ve the driver mfahf >°i r f Q ° m \ for ; at an -V moment he S 4 to. face with an emerg ncy which requires ample movement of the legs and arms. This is even more important when the hand brake lever is ntted on the side nearest to the passenger. whose legs, if near enough tc the controls, will successfully prevent the driver m a tight corner from operating the brake.

Ihere have also been eases where careless movement on the part of the passenger has resulted in the gears of the car accidentally being engaged when at rest. Another thing to bea> in mind is to sit with the legs well forward that is to say, not " sitting nt an angle so that thev get in dangerous proximity to the clutch or accelerator controls. On one o- two occasions the writer has been placed in nr awkward position by carelessness of this sort, the passenger’s hoot getting unde- the pedals which. wbe n nressed down naturally could not. fulfil their function.

SIGNBOARDS AND SCENERY. Approximately 1200 signboards that had been creeled and maintained by the Standard Oil Company are being removed from the highways of California. Oregon. Washington, Nevada and Arizona. The company announced reco.itly that it believed such signs detracted from the natural beauty of the t’.avel routes on the Pacific coast, and because it felt that the scenery should be unmarred it would remove its existing signboards and would erect lie others in the future. The advertising value of the signs and the investment represented would be willingly sacri fired, it urns stated, in the interest of making the highways more attractive. Hereafter the company will place signs only in commercial locations.

A PROGRESSIVE ASSOCIATION. A very progressive and influential body is the Marlborough AutomobileAssociation, which has made- great strides during the past 12 or IS months. It was reported at the last meeting that the membership was now between ISO and 190, and some 97 members had already paid their subscriptions for the ensuing year (says “Ignis” in the Marlborough Express). From a feeble and poverty-stricken body, which, owing to the indifferenecof its members, frequently had difficulty in paying its way, the association has developed into a solid organisation, with a useful credit balance at the bank, despite the fact that it has spent a considerable sum in providing road and school signs, and generally in forwarding the interests of members.

FRANCE TO HAVE A SPEEDWAY,

France, the country of origin of some of the finest racing cars in the world, has up to now been without a track of any kind for testing purposes. Spain has built the Sit.ies track near Barcelona, and Italy the' Monza track at Milan. England has had Brooklands ever since 1907. and America has a collection of motor tracks of all kinds. The need of a similar track has been increasingly felt by French manufacturers during recent years, more especially since the war. and the winning of the Grand Prix by England, America, and Italy respectively the last three years lias-been attributed by many competent authorities to this lack of facilities for testing. It is therefore pleasing to learn that a speedway, said to be without compeer and possessing many new features, is now nearing completion at Montleliery, a suburb of Paris. The track, which is being constructed entirely of ferro-conerete, embraces a circuit of two ' and a-lialf kilometres, and has been designed so as to make high speeds possible and, at the same time, to render racing interesting to the public by keeping the cars in view throughout the entire circuit. Public stands will accommodate 10,000 spectators, and outside the racing track proper a second track «is being constructed for the prolonged testing of new chasses.

“THE CITY OF ANGELS.”

MOVIES AND MOTOR CARS.

A NEW ZEALANDER’S EXPERIENCES IN CALIFORNIA.

WONDERS OF THE YOSEMITE

“With a population that has doubled in the last six years, and that now stands at 1,073,955, Los Angeles (the City of Angels) is one of the wonder cities of the world,” says the Rev. M. W. P. Lascelles, an -ex-Napier resident, who has returned to New Zealand fresh with vivid impressions of California in general, and of Los Angeles in particular. e

“A few statistics,” he said, when interviewed, “indicate California’s extraordinary prosperity, and the amazing progress that it is effecting. The building permits in Los Angeles alone for 1923 involved expenditure of £50,033,248 —a staggering sum. No less than four thirteen-storey buildings were in the course, of construction. Again, Los Angeles is estimated to* produce manufactured commodities valued at £230,451,623 annually, and of this sum the motion picture industry, which employs 20,000 actors and actresses working before the camera, is computed to be responsible for £37,000,000. The motion picture studios —over 200 companies; are working them —are mammoth affairs, and the weekly pay-roll of the industry aggregates £250,000.” . Automobiles' went on Mr Lascelles, played a large part in the'life of the community. Practically every family —or one in every four individuals—owned a ear, and in Los Angeles alone over 28,000 cars were registered in 1923, while the Californian Automobile Association had a membership of 70,000, and supplied an enormous and varied amount of indispensable information to tourists and visitors, the country roads and junctions being plainly marked by signposts and mile pegs.

Many of the streets were practically lined with cars at every hour of the day, and the morning and evening processions of cars to and from the city was three or four cars abreast. Casualties from motor accidents, accounted for forty deaths per month, but the city auto traffic was regulated efficiently by a remarkable system by which “silent policemen” throughout the city changed their directions simultaneously, the directions being, distributed and operated from a central station upon which information as to traffic conditions in the various streets was concentrated.

Further enlightening statistics affording tangible proof of the extraordinary wealth and prosperity of Los Angeles were the city’s general business statistics. Yearly, for instance, 500,000 tourists visited it. It had 631 hotels (with 94,560 rooms) and 200,000 telephones, besides 350 churches. Water for a thirsty populace was brought from the Sierra Nevada mountains, 250 _ miles, and school buildings in Los Angeles alone aggregated 800, with close on 600 teachers to educate the young idea. “One of the most wonderful spots I visited,” said Mr Lascelles, “was the Yosemite Valley, 188 miles from San Francisco. It is a great cleft in a mountain plateau, and was discovered by accident, in 1851, by a patrol of soldiers pursuing an outlaw. The first sight of the Yosemite is a panorama of sheer bluffs, blue-shadow-ed, and streaked here and there with silver cataracts that feed a mountain stream in the valley. Sheer cliffs overhang the pleasant valley. One prominent bluff is called El Capitan. It rises vertically to a height of 4000 feet above the valley floor, and is only rivalled for sheer breathless magnificence by Glacier Point, almost as high, which ' actually overhangs the valley below. «

“On the way to Yosemit:-, where private companies cater on the. most elaborate scale for immense numbers of tourists, you pass groups of great pine trees, the ‘big tree? 5 of California, which are magnificent in their size, and which, it is calculated, were lusty sap-lings-about the time the Hebrews left Egypt. ’ ’ With his party, Mr Lascelles later went to visit the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River, a great gash in the earth. At first sight of it, he said, one was completely spellbound by its awful immensity, and the material' considerations of the everyday existence faded into insignificance beside its magnificent immensity. The chasm was in places over a mile deep, and it extended, with the turbulent Colorado surging in its depth, for over 200 miles through the. core of arid mountain plateau. Temples, towers, pinnacles, or lofty minarets—all were there in the canyon’s weather-beaten walls, down which the visitor descends on winding, precipitous tracks for over 4000 feet to the brink of the muddy river. “The'last part of the track,” said Mr Lascelles, “they call the Devil’s Corkscrew, and it is all that. Yet almost beside the ancient chasm is the up-to-date tourist hotel at El Tovar, with two luxuriously equipped trains arriving daily from Los Angeles. You get everything then in California. Sunlight, fresh air, and mountain scenery. There are great cities teeming with industrial life, and busy seaports whose freighters tap the markets of the world. There are oil fields and orchards, moving picture- studios, and giant poultry yards, and more than anything there is the amazing wealth of the community and the abundance of nearly all the pleasures life can offer. And vet, at the end of it all, it is a wonderfully agreeable sensation to be back in New Zealand.”