MODERN MOTORING.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 114, 17 May 1927, Page 16

MODERN MOTORING.

THE DECLINE IN MOTOR IMPORTS.

In the decreased demand for cars in the past quarter all classes of motors share except the Italian. These figures for the quarter show the number and origin of the cars and chassis imported :—

1!>27. 1920. United States .... I.TJS 2135 Canada 1110 United Kingdom.. 7«4 sor» Italy 184 S7 France .......... y:? Belgium O -2 A.AJL ACTIVITIES. Mr. A. Grayson and Mr. Roy Champtaloup, the service officer of the Auckland Automobile Association attended a meeting of members at Te Awamutu last night. To-night a meeting will be held at Otorohanga and on Wednesday evening at Te Kuiti. Between the meetings the service officer will report on and sign-post where necessary the Te Awamutu-Kawhia, Kawhia-Otoro-hanga and the Hangatiki-Waitomo-Marakopu-Te Kuiti roads. He will also signpost the route from Te Kuiti via Te Kumi and Mairoa to Pio Pio for use in winter when the main road is flooded. Meetings will also be held at Morrinsville in the afternoon of the 23rd, Te Aroha on the same evening and at Matamata on the 24th inst. The service car has covered 32,500 miles to the end of April. The total maintenance and running costs, including special equipment for service work, works out at 4.11 pence per mile. The Taumarunui agency has requested the association to take steps to secure an amendment of the Act which makes motor owners liable for damages for injury to a passenger even if the passenger has been given a casual lift along the road. The association will take steps to have some dangerous railway crossings on the Waihi-Tauranga road brought to the notice of the Minister of Railways. The cutting back of all banks which obscure vision will be requested, especially the banks at the Athenree crossing.

A CYCLIST'S REVENGE. A Southern push cyclist who was on a visit to some friends in the country some miles out of the city took a rather mean way to get even with motorists who, he says, made his journey along the roads so unpleasant that after two spills into a gorse hedge he decided to walk. While 4oing so he hit on the following idea. Arriving at a certain bridge traversed by hundreds of motorists, generally at a speed considerably in excess of the regulations, the irate cyclist posted himself, notebook in hand, on the bridge. As the motorists approached, their dilemma at sight of what they took to be an inspector on duty, and the frantic efforts with which they reduced speed, and their general discomfort, made amends for the imaginary wrongs of the cyclist from the city. "Just a notebook and pencil, asked no questions, made a few notes re the river, and the motorists got a fright, and I 'got even' on the day." It is difficult to say on whom the joke rested. The cyclist in curbing the motorists' speed certainly did good work. THE MELBOURNE MOTOR SHOW. Melbourne's Third International Motor Show was opened by the Governor (Lord Somers) at the exhibition on May 5. It comprised 130 display stands, covering a total area of eight acres, on which were exhibited the best and moat recent productions of the automotive manufacturers of'many nations. These products were divided into cars (main hall and basement stands) and commercial vehicles (sports oval), while motor cycles, accessories, taotor fuels and spirits, and the products of trades allied to the motor industry were spread throughout the various galleries. The car section included a big majority of the makes of automobiles now selling on the Australian market, and, including the different models and body styles of each marque, the total of cars exhibited exceeded 300. Their value approadies £200,000. The aim of the organisers (the executive of the Chamber of Automotive Industries) has been to make this show the most extensive ever held in Melbourne, and also the most comprehensive collection of automotive products ever brought together outside London and New York.

Forecast by an Englishman, Roger Bacon, in the thirteenth century, the motor car was made possible by the inventive persistence of a German, Gottlieb Daimler, and popularised by an American, Henry Ford. Many other men of many other nations have contributed to its perfected make-up, and to-day the motor car is not only in universal use, but is proving more, and more to be a link between nations, a dispeller of isolation, and a giant factor in the industries which support modern civilisation.

MOTOR TAXES, A WORLD-WIDE COMPLAINT.

The raiding of taxation imposed on motorists for the provision of roads is not peculiar to Britain. Practically two million motorists of New York State are voicing their protest against the passage of any Gasoline Taxation Bill by the Legislature, the Automobile Association having sent out a bulletin urging concerted action against such a bill. . The most important reason put forth by those wanting to pass the bill is stated to be that money is needed for more roads. The association points out, however, that under the present system of licensing automobiles a substantial part' of the fund so raised goes to the City of New York, and "may be used for operating the Aquarium or any other thihgs." It is added that most of the gasoline tax bills before the Legislature "seek to scatter money about the State, giving some to cities, some to villages, some to counties, and only a portion to the State to be used on roads."

AMERICA ABROAD.

The Department of Commerce intends to help American automobile manufacturers in their efforts to develop trade in foreign markets. President Coolidge has made a Budget request to Congress for a 65,000 dollars appropriation, to bo used for the study by foreign trade commissioners of methods of combating the increasing efforts of foreign automobile makers to get a better foothold in the world markets. The President's note said American manufacturers were spending all available resources to retain their foreign markets, but that Federal aid was required.