MOTOR AND CYCLE NOTES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 145, 13 November 1914, Page 4

MOTOR AND CYCLE NOTES.

When th ( . great war is over, anil its hint Di,)' e<ui be written m wle-; onnte fashion. I in' writer will bo Bur- , ■l'it-cd it it is not retert'ed to a# motoring campaign. ami this notwithstanding all lluit >vi read of tint march* illy oft troop* in massed million*. It is' true enough that the pace of a man'swalk cannot be increased, but what differentiates this Var from all its predecessors is that tin- walking bus been ef* ' fectual, and Una there has been tliu minimum of waste of time either in the - following of false scents or of standing - idl« wliilo awaiting ilu- reports of intel- . ligcnce bureaux. Scouting in the present lield of o'piTiii inns is as different irem that of the l-'ram u-lierman war of fortyfour years ago as .radii well be imagined, what with motor caw (itti'd with wireless installations, or Hying from outpost to base, to say nothing of the in- • valuable ni iviciv, of aeroplanes.,'..' F.von Paris itself is in touch with the troops at the front by motor car, and wellknown journalists have been making long but rapid journeys with despatches. It cannot be doubted, moreover, in View of t'u>, enormous numbers of cars that have been commandeered by tho several armies, that tbev have been uaeil even for conveying troops, not only for thfc sake of rapidity, but as a relief tp th# congestion of the railways. In all p'robi ability, however, though details are lacking as yet, the, motor vehicle has beeij '., chiefly useful to nll> the. armies alike U • respect of the commissariat arrange-. ments. The English war authorities, wei know, already owned a large, numbef ot. heavy motors before the war began, and) had a lien 011 others; while the FrenflW ■ army lias always had plenty of transport * waggons in use at its annual uvres; nor is it likely that Germany' behindhand in this respect,. One indeed of countless motor waggons pas* sing through Brussels since the occuf < pation, and one cannot assume the pog* sibility of the Teutonic hordes being fed| unless more expeditious means of bring-* ing up supplies were - available • than iti • previous wars. The diflcrence to th^ : rank and file must be considerably, and in any future war, if one dare to thinU , of nikitm'V ontbreM;, hp tile dire lessons of the present cataclysm, the u&4 of mechanical transport 'would certainty) ; bo enormous, and all but universal, Next to the question of food supply* however, the outstanding feature of th«| war has been the dramatic work of th«( avnioird c .and on-- can v.c.ic"ivf th* time when tliry will almost entirely sup* ewede the use of cavalry for scouting purposes. Lastly, there are the motoi; ' ambulances; what a godsend they have proved in every district where £iic fight*, ing was carried on in the neighborhood of roads.

Ko country is feeling, the (listurbane*' caused to trade'by the war less heavily; than England, and it ia pleasing to nut* that one temporary embargo which was enforced at the outset has now been entirely r. v-oved -r»>n coii<vrni*.J ine exportation of cars, and was probably, ; enjoined in the first instance pending such time as the military authorities ci ttd untile the extent oi filter own re< quirementß by purcnaae. Any Britiaß iiiMiuW.nici however, U now fi'Pe t(* •xport carß of every kind, and as th<| trade routes, thanks to the English are kept. open, there shouJd be an iiw erease of business owing to the frith* dniwi of a large proportion nf (Yifcinental supplies. The Dominions, if onll from juitimental reasons, will be fuj moraAling henceforth to takovtlp Britu ifili aft, and though the home trade ol motor manufacturers will- suffer son# curtailment for the present, they wajp) utldoubtpdly count upon a substantial increase in their exports to this country* The recent amendments made to the Victorian MoW Act provide that; "Anj| person proved to have been under the Influence of intoxicating, liquorj whilst driving a motor car or motor cycle Shall,. bo liable to a penalty of not less than * fivo pounds or more than thirty pounds* or to be imprisoned for a term of no| less than fourteen days or more ttuu( tlree month* and the license of sucb person shall be cancelled and sUch pereott shall not be again licensed except upoil the order of a court of petty 1 This is certainly a move in the right direction, and one that will meet witK the approval of motorists and the publkl alike, for there is little doubt that discredit has been brought on motoring from this cause than from all other conn bined. ' I

An idea of tha value of motoring iai Australia to wage-earners may be gathered from the fact that from careful compilations by the editor <jf the Australian Motorist, it is clear that at least' £1,018,000 was disbursed in wages iniAustralia last year through the agency of the petrol'motor. ' A recent visitor from England stated that the B.S.'A. Company, the largest manufacturer of bicycle parts in th« 'world, have for the prosent "clofl'wl down" on making their well-known conn poaent partß, and now have their hug# works going day and night in turing arms and big guns for the Engw lisli war authorities.

The makers of heavy commercial vehicles are having an extraordinary busy time in England, owing to War Office orders. One manufacturer, ac-< . cording to a contemporary, is supplying twenty chaspes per week, and has an„ order for a thousand on hand. Another , firm which hae previously devoted itself ' mainly to pleasure cars, has- beeh askwjl to put through fifty per week. The destruction of these vehicles during tha war is sure to be considerable, so thati tie demand is likely to continue until the war is approaching its conclusion* 'Meanwhile' English motorists, whosfi vehicles have heen taken over by tha War Office, find it very difficult to replace them. It is said that close on 80Qf vehicles have been acquired in this man* ner. Many of the heavy transit vehicles Veing ordered by the war authorities are leqiiired for Fiench and Belgian armies.