MOTORING IN AUSTRALIA.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 13904, 1 December 1910, Page 9

MOTORING IN AUSTRALIA.

1' M R EDGAR STEAD'S EXPERI--*J - ENCES. i fMr Fdirar F. Stead, who returned I J ui ""ve interesting infernmJ Son the subject of motoring Now I ~Sh VVales aud V-ctcna to a r, P nI " Native of "Tho Pre,,-" Dunn. I- ! '1 v>» Melbourne. Mr Stead gave c ! -K-r" before the Bird Observer. Club .^;:^Zoalandßird S "-a,u^t l n .1 Thich, as is generally known, he » •; B «ch interested. From tho rnemhers ] of t'»o club Mr Stead received a vei> h TSIS h» 20 h._, v-nx.wi ' tc * \ u <trelia, end the torpedo body, ' b uiU in Ckristcliurcli. bring ratiier a W"iunique troeof car hotly, was the subject *i W» cl ' favourablo comment by all the motorists who examined it. Mr • {Head tpent three weeks in Sydney and the remainder of the time in Melbourne. Oi Sidney and New South Wales, he : mid "that" it * vas an ldt,al D ' acs ironx the point of view of the visiting motor- .- t " Alter depositing the duty payable 'on'his car {which was, of cotuse, »-e----rinded.when he left the Commonwealth), all the. visiting motorist bar-- : to do is to send to tiie Chief Inspector of Police bis name, the name of the .• place he has come Irom, and the number <:n his car. The New Zealand nwtorist arriving with his car in Melbourne finds that he has to register his car at a cost of £1, obtain a .'" driver's license at a cast of 2s 6d, and '■ girt a special number allotted for hi" car. '"the speed limits fixed in Sydney and Melbourne," said Mr Stead, "are ■, rather interesting, seeing that the ' limit in some parts of New Zealand is four miles a week over some crossings! Iv Sydney, within a radius of four mile.* ot tno Peat, Office, tbe speed limit is fifteen miles an hour, but the only | prosecutions instituted are in cases j ' »here driving to the common danger { takes place. Ordinarily, drivers go up to 20 miles per hour in the city. The - game state of things applies to the city of 31elbourno, but in the suburbs yf /that city there aro a lot of badlyworked police-traps, but the convictionii obtained have been for speeds ex- ■ ceeding 23 miles an hour. There has »• been great agitation amongst motorists on-i£g to the fact that the distances ' over which tho motors are timed and '*' tho watches with which the time is *■' taken are not, generally, as accurate ■.- as thvy ought to be." »»-" Regarding the roads in the vicinity ,!'- of Sydney and Melbourne, Mr Stead ." said that comparatively few of them '•'_ hare a perfectly smooth surface, most ','• of them being a series of ridges and '•' pot holes. He believed that the coun- "' try roadi aro better and that the roads ■ , in tbe western district of Victoria ar*> » very good. From the information he >• got on the subject, he considered that "-" anyone taking a car from Sydney to Melbourne- would be well advised to _,' ship or rail it in preference to going -* 'try road, as many of tbe roads aro ab- ' fiolutely impassable after a heavy " abowor of rain. Regarding his motor trip from the .. Bluff after the arrival of the Ulimaroa, Mr-Stead said that the roads from the ■- Bluff to Gore aro good, and on the * road from Clinton to Dunedin are to ba ' „ found the only examples of decent ap- .",' preaches to bridges and culverts that .he haß seen'in the Dominion. As a general rule in the roadway just before i a bridge or culvert there is either a de- | , pression or an elevation, which, unless i ip 1, taken at a very low speed, jars the I •*,**' mechanism of a car considerably. The """toad from Clinton to Dunedin Mr I ;_ ; , Stead considers to be tho best continu- j i!r| ousstrip of rond, and the. best formed. . rip and kept in repair; he lias met with in . J' Sew *Zcabnd.