MOTORING AND AVIATION.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 13905, 2 December 1910, Page 8

MOTORING AND AVIATION.

# I A NEW ZEALANDERS OBSERVATIONS. INTERVIEW WITH MR R. M. MACDONALD. After an extended n_d very enjoyable trip to the Old Country and the Continent. Mr R. M. Macdonald, a well-known Christchurch resident, returned to this city yesterday. In the course of an interview with a '"Press" reporter, Mr Macdonald made some interesting observations on the progress and popularity of motoring and aviation in the Old World. The popularity and übiquity of the motor in London, Mr Macdonald says, was sufficient to show that we lived in the motor age. In the West-end of London horses were, now almost as scarce as motors were six years ayo. The change was very much to the advanof traffic, wihch was much faster, and. with the wonderful police .supervision, perfectly sufe. There was a tendency to restrict slow horse traffic to certain .streets. As far as public vehicles were concerned, the motor 'bus and taxi-cab had revolutionised the old style, and horse; and cabs were disappearing as fast as tiiey con id be replaced by the mechanical conveyance. The motor traffic had increased mi enormously that the supply oi drivers who complied with the police regulations as to knowledge of the streets of London, and at the same time had the necessary knowledge of mechanics, was far below the demand. Lareo numbers of taxi-cabs did not net out on to the street on account of the scarcity of driver.-. The new motor 'busses were very fine vehicles, seating about thirty p.-u-jongers, and running practically noiselessly at from twelve to sixteen miles per hour. Mr Macdonald said that ho would strongly advise anyone visiting the Old Country, nnd driving a motor, to join th" Automobile Association, which was the road club of England, and had • much to do with the regulation of motor traffic on the roads. The Association was not formed to assist •motorists by obstructing the law. but to assist them" in observing the law. There had been a remarkable change in the sentiments of motorists generally respecting extreme speed on public roads, and a- man who habitually offended in this direction would be warned by the Association. The result was that there wero now fewer prosecutions than there were a few years ago. Every driver of a motor-car was required to produce a license at Home, but this license was no guarantee of his fitness to drive a car. In France, on the other hand, one could not get a license until he had shown efficiency as a driver. In both England and France th.ie was an immense amount of touring in motorcars, especially in England. The roads in England had admirable surfaces; tho surfaces-often wero tarred, and every day this was being extended. A Road \ Board had been appointed by the Government to attend to the roads, and they had the control of £600,000 per annum, raised by an additional tax on motors. 'This money was practically all spent in improving the roads. Mr Macdonald went on to say that in England and France the tendency was now _. go in for smaller, lighter, and more era vient motors than used to bo the case. Tho most popular was the motor between 12 and 20 h.p., with four cylinders. The taxation was on a sliding scale, according to the horse power, and the larger cars paid very much heavier taxation, while not, as a rule, having any greater capacity for passengers. The speed at which they could be driven was not greater, owing to legal restrictions, and the tyre bill was enormously greater. Motor racing was not taking on to any extent in England. It was altogether barred on the roads. The most prominent motor-racing track was known as tlio Brook lands Racing Club, where thero was a threemile concrete course, sufficiently banked at the corners, nnd providing admirable running. The raco meetings were held during the summer months, and tho arrangements wero so good that for the last two years there had not been a single serious accident, even though the speed on the track had been as high as 123 miles per hour. Brooklands, Mr Macdonald added, was also becoming the principal aviation ground near London, and large Eheds wero being erected for the housing of flying machines. Mr Macdonald attended a number of aviation meetings, particularly those at Doncaster, Blackpool, and Duvisay. He is con- / vinced from what ho saw that while the experienco that is being got today by tbe aviators will bo useful for future guidance, the perfect machine •is not yet in sight. The difficulty was that the air was full of eddies and currents, which, of course, were not visible, and even the most successful aviators wero absolutely at a loss when they encountered them. A number of . the aviators who had been killed this iyear were accounted the most skilful men m their profession; they were by no means novices in the air. The Hon. v.. S. Rolls, for instance, had had a very wide experience of both motors j and aeroplanes, but in spite of all his skill he was dashed to death in an aviation accident. Mr Macdonald was ; satisfied that the aeroplane has not I entered the field of practical politics yet. Hie most perfect comfort Jl \_ travelling could b© Rot with a 1,. h.p. motor-car, which would carry hve people. It required double that power to keep one man in the air. As far as dirigibles were concerned, thoy had nearly all been destroyed as fast as they could be built. The English War Office was considering the purchase of two .trench dirigibles, which were of the non-rigid type, as distinguished from the rigid German type. Mr Macdonald attended tho aeroplane exbibi- _ tions in London and Paris, but tho machines were mostly of tho theorist type, and it was rattier the exception \ for any of them to have been in tho air. Mr Macdonald remarked that the attempts to achieve the conquest of the air had been responsible for a demand for light and highly-powered internal combustion engines. This had become a distinct part of the engineer--1 iue trade, and some beautiful engines '.| wero being turned out. The most ' popular was the "Gnome,'' but even J this required one gallon of lubricating : oil to ©very four gallons of petrol con- '■. suined!, a serious handicap. The Continental roads took Mr Macdouald's fancy very much. They were ; broader than the English roads, and the grades on the hills were much more regular. A boon to the travelling motorist was the admirable system of i kilometre posts (taking the place of H our mile posts), and tho cast-iron direction signs at the corners of all roads. The great Fulk of the roads i were maintained by tho National Goi vernment, and were known as National roads. These were divided into routes, j and each route road was given a numt her. The kilometre stones had on j them the route number, the distance j to the town which was being ap--1 preached, and the distance from tne j town which was being left. For in--1 stance, tlie route road from Paris to I I.ice is No. 7. All the motorist had. 1 to do was to keep with the kilometre I atones numbered 7, and though tbe I distance -was 500 miles, he would arI rive in Nice. The French maps gave I very complete information about the I routesj and had continual references to I tbe kilometre stones. Another con- | venience of great aaaista_ce was that S tho villages, however small, had their 1 names and distances marked, and their I distance from the nearest town *or I city was shovn on iron plates fixed to t tho first and last bouses in lhe village. W| The system obviated a great many en-

quiries, and was a pleasant change Irom the wooden signposts, too often mutilated and misleading, which did duty in England. Mr Macdonald closed the interview with an interesting remark on the quality of the cars now being turned out in England. He found that most of them were good, and a few wore bad—exactly the reverse of what obtained five years ago.