PROGRESSIVE AMERICA.

Taranaki Daily News, 29 December 1916, Page 2

PROGRESSIVE AMERICA.

WELLIXGTONIAN'S IMPRESSIONS.. INCREASED OUTPUT EVERYWHERE. ■ "Uu»iucss in America is extremely lloiu-i.-diiug, most of the factories bebiir deluged willi orders for home eonsiimptioii," sail! Mr li. A. Fox fo a l'nst reporter in speaking of Ills recent visit to America. "This is the case with every line of manufacture; and most of lli'c linns were unable to accept foreign orders." Referring to steel, Mr. 'Fox stilted that there were, hundreds |of mills, and tlie possibilities of output v.-ere ever increasing. In speaking to the president of one firm, Mr. Fox learnt that it had been decided to devote the sum of £3,0H0,'000 towards increasing the output from the works. One million pounds of this was for immediate use, while the remainder was to be set aside for the same purpose when required. One of the large factories had gone on its knees to secure sufficient steel. Another large factory, with 1000 hands, had only enough steel in stock to last twenty-four hours. Of course, these factories were mostly carrying on the manufacture of munitions for the Allies.

GROWTH OF MOTOR INDUSTRY. "To give yon an idea of the immense growth of the motor industry,'' said Mr. Fox, "Iwill tell you of iin experience 1 bail in Chicago. In company with a friend, I motored through the parks of that great city on a .Sunday afternoon, and as we were returning we passed such an immense number of cars that I decided to take a tally. In one minute 110 fewer than forty-five cars passed. As anothe-i instance of the tremendous number of ears in America, the number on my friend's cur was 235,000. This represented the State of Illinois alone. It is expected that there will be five million cars running in America hv the end of next year.''

ASPHALT STREETS'. 'Probably the most noticeable feature in America,'' said Mr Fox, "ir. the beautiful streets and roads everywhere. Most of tlie streets are paved with some form of asphalt. A large quantity of this asphalt is obtained from the oil'.vorks. Waste product from the oilworks i.--, also used for mixing with the ordinary road material, forming what were known as oil-roads. The advantage of this was the absence of dust on the roads. They were re-coated once a year. On one occasion I travelled for 1000 miles along these roads and saw no sign of dust. Oil such roads in Chicago there are three lines of traffic each way all day long, and there is no sign of cracked or patchy asphalt. Victoria, British Columbia, with a population equal to about half that of Wellington, has some twenty-five miles of streets prepared in this way. Before ling there will be a stretch of asphalt roads of more than 3000 miles between New York and San Francisco." On very hilly streets specially prepared blocks were used. " STREET LIGHTING. The streets in America were far bettor lighted than those in New Zealand. Standards containing five globes of high power were erected at intervals of about 35ft along the street-. In many of the smaller towns these standard* are presented by the shopkeepers, not only because of the better light but with a view to securing increased trade.