GAR AGE GOSSIP

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 734, 6 August 1929, Page 6

GAR AGE GOSSIP

For the first time a State lias passed the 2,000,000 motor vehicle registration mark, New Tork reaching a total of 2,053,942 In 1925. An automobile club for youngsters above 80 has been organised by Gustav Hellermann, 91, at Hagen, Germany. Twenty foundation members joined. One hundred and six events have been scheduled for the 1929 seasou by European racing authorities. While many of these are run on the open highways and hill climbs where high speed is not the deciding factor, more than 40 are strictly racing and speed events over specially constructed speedways like that at Brooklands, England, or well established road courses like that at Targo Florio in Sicily.

Increasing importance of motor vehicle transportation in Ireland is evidenced by the steadily growing demand for increased highway facilities in all parts of the Free State. This demand for better roads Is being met as rapidly as possible, with construction and repair work being hastened throughout the country. The Free State Government looks upon the highway system as a primary form of improvement for prosperity.

The roads of France are the straightest in Europe, as well as the most numerous to the square mile. The Romans began them, and when Napoleon, the greatest roadmaker in modern French history, improved them, after the good work which had been done by those other Royal road makers, I-lenry IV., Louis XIII., and Louis XIV., he was in many cases consolidating for his armies roads over which the Roman legions had marched many centuries before.