MOTOR NEWS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 180, 8 January 1915, Page 7

MOTOR NEWS.

NOTES. A handy carrier for spare sparking plugs can be made out of the metal case in which shaving soap sticks an supplied. Both ends should he padded j with felt. The motor-cars carry their candle lamps only, states a New Zealander, ; *"j iling from London, and many of the ! motor-'bused 110 lights at all, because 11 ei.don under darkness is considered ; safer from attack from the clouds. I in response to an appeal issued by j the English War Office 011 October 2, over 2000 applied the next morning and the number required were ready for service in the evening. Koine experts estimate that close upon 200,001) motor-cars, motor waggons, etc.. j are engaged in military service in Europe. The Allies command 175,000 of these, (Jermany having the balance, 75,000. The Allies' fleet of vehicles is being augmented at least at the rate of 250 a week. Brick roads are being used with success in some parts of the United States, and although exceedingly expensive in the first place, have proved most economical on account of their extraordinary long life. It is paid that such roads will last for upwards of twenty years and cost very little to maintain. There is a talk of motorists in Tasmania having to pay a tyre tax in 1!)15 for revenue purposes. The proposal in that motorists shall pay a stamp duty equivalent to 121 per cent oil. the retail selling price of pneumatic tyres and ifl | per cent on solid tyres. This applies to all new tyres purchased. Half the above rates to be levied on tyres already in use. Should this class tax, which has been laid by the Tasmanian Treasurer before the House of Assembly, be passed, which is j doubtful, it will constitute one of the heaviest taxes imposed on motorists in the world. Take the owner of a 18 h.p. car, shod with BSO and 120 J)unlop tyres, who uses his ear in and out all the year round. He will probably use two sets of tyres. Should the proposed tax go through, he will pay about .£!) 10s duty, which wcuhl be collected as stamp duty 011 simi'ar lines to the beer stamp duty imposed on brewers. At present Tasmanian motorists only pay an annual tax of 10s a year, and naturally there is strong opposition to the proposal to jump this sum to the dimensions suggested. Under the Victorian motor-car tax the owner of a 12-16 h.p. car pays £3 3s,' which is itself a fairly stiff tax, but under the proposed Tasmanian tyre tax, the owners of ihe same class of car would have to pay three times as much. One weak point in connection with a tyre tax [ is that motorists would have to pay just as much 0:1 a cover that ran 5000 miles I as 011 a tyre that had only run 150 ' miles and was then discarded through being badly c"t. The life of a tyre is too varied for taxation purposes. If a class tax must be imposed 011 motorists, the petrol tax is the most equitable, for the ' further one travels, the more one pays. One of the largest manufacturers of hub gears will list a three-speed countershaft gear for 1015. This is, indeed, a sign of the times, for, though the hub gear has, and probably will have, a fairly large scope in which the counter-shaft gear cannot compete with it, yet the counter-shaft gear is undoubtedly the gear of the future. There is one important point which is often overlooked when gears arc being discussed, and that is the importance of not having less than three speeds. Some will maintain that two are ample, and that a third ratio is •a, luxury, and that in certain types of country this may be partly true, but no one who has used a good three-speed gear is likely to return to the tvvo-apeed gear box. The third ratio allows of a reasonably high top gear, a medium intermediate one, on which all ordinary hills may be taken, and an emergency ratio suitable for restarting on a stiff grade, for ploughing out of sand or mud, and for all exceptional work. If the lower ration of a two-speed box is to be of any practical use in real difficulties, it will be too low for the ordinary bad j hill, which just cannot be taken 011 top, I and if the top gear is lowered so as to ' enable the machine to climb severe gradients, it will be necessary to increase the engine revolutions unpleasantly to attain a fair speed under good conditions. Obviously, the two speed is a great improvement on the single gear | and is sufficient for normal work in | many cases, but equally obviously the three-speed scores over the two under alI most any circumstances, call it luxury jor necessity as you will. Recent trials I have shown that a three-speed gear is al- > most a necessity, and we shall not be surprised to see four-pseed boxes become fairly common in the near future. England has been the pioneer of the multispeed gear, and, surely, rougher couni tries need it even more pronouncedly.