MOTORS & MOTORING

Dominion, Volume 16, Issue 224, 9 June 1923, Page 23

MOTORS & MOTORING

[By

"Spotlight.”]

STOLEN CARS The owner of a car recently B away from the city and ab^" in a badly damaged condition up-cou try has suggested that it is time the Automobile Club did. something nr e matter. The W.A.C. with before, and the success it met with was not encouraging;, flu? club asl « d that joy-riding in other peoples motorcars should be made' a criminal A member of the committee from memory, says the onlv satistaction they got was that the ™ a x lE ™m penalty was increased front £2.to LIL. It is a ridiculous state of aftairs, and high time the law was amended, lhe W.A.C., I understand, is taking up the matter again. , In- Sydney the other day Judge Scholes put the when summing up at the quarter Sessions in a case in which a. youth was charged with maliciously injuring a car, vTiich he had taken without the permission of the owner. He said that in his opinion there must .be proof that there was intent to injure. “We have had many attempts to convict people for joy-riding, he said, “and for stealing motorcars, and ’ those who have been arraigned have escaped because it is not an offence to illegally use a motor-car. The question that concerned Jiiage Scholes most was whether or not there had been malicious injury to- the car, but he raised an interesting point for motorists when he mentioned how prisoners escaped the grip of the law when they were arraigned on a charge of stealing. , . , , In New Zealand this week we have had a boy fined for lending a psarifle to another boy, and so committing a breach of the firearms Act. While inventing this new offence the law blanclly refuses to see any harm in a man running off with a valuable motorcar and abandoning it m a wrecked condition. ®

MOTOR VEHICLES BILL ' There is danger that tho Tilbtor Vehicles Bill may be left again because of differences as to the amount of the annual license fees. In the Bill as introduced in. 1921 these were as follow: — Motor-coach or motor omnibus ... LIU Trade motor (includes lorries, etc.) L/ Private motor-car ......;.. •••••• Motor-cycle (including side-car) ... Ll Traction engine It should be noted that the Bill makes provision for local bodies charging further fees for. motor vehicles coming under their heavy traffic by-laws, and additional charges may also be made by. local bodies for motor-vehicles plying for hire. ■ _... At the conference on the - Bill a license fee of £3 for Pirate motorcars wc# favoured. The i outh Island Motor Union has protested against more than a nominal license fee, but at its conference finally left the matter in the hands of the executive. . A flat rate for everything m the wav of a private car on four wheels is scarcely equitable. A motor-cyclist with a side-car combination pays only £1 a year, but let him procure even tho lightest English small car —some cost scarcely more than a motor-cycle combination—and under the Bill as it last appeared he pays £4 a year for the fourth wheel, and as much as the man who owns tho most expensive and luxurious limousine in the c « No one wants a complicated system of classification, but it should not bo difficult to ascertain .the .freights ►or .a few typical cars and make a gradation of about three <ieps—one that lets the miniature car off lightly, a second that brings in the average run of cars, and a third th*t gets an extra pound or two out of the owners of the large, heavy, and expensive vehicle who can very well afford to D av it, and whose car undoubtedly takfs more out of the road. EAST COAST ROADS A prospect of a metalled road all the way from ■Wellington. to. Tolaga Bay is held out.in a review of the roading position m the jPoyerty BayEast Coast districts, which ;feas been made by the Gisborne . TJw “Times” points out .that taking Gis , borne as the centre, there.are three main roads which, require to be metalled so as to stand all. the. .year traffic, before even a beginning has been made to overcome .the present disabilities. These are the road south to Napier, the road up the coast as far as, say, Hick’s Bay, and the road to Rotorua and Auckland, via the Otoko Hill. The trouble with the south road is on the way to being overcome, the Government having yielded to the combined representations of diffe ► ent districts concerned and having taken the matter 1 in hand. A gap ot onlv seven miles now remains to be completed on the Tarewa Hill, and there will be a motor road from Gisbdrne to Napier that can bo used all the year round. e .. , Next to the main road, the highwav that is of the greatest importance to Gisborne at tho present time is, undoubtedly, the coast road, and while a good metalled road right up to Te Araroa at Hie East Cape is desired, the immediate objective is Tolaga Bay- Of the distance between Gisborne and Tolaga, generally reckoned at 35 miles, less than 15 miles is metalled, leaving fullv 20. miles to be completed. Abput 22 or 23 miles of the total distance lies within the Cook County, and the rest in Uawa C< Bv t fnr the worst parts of the road are on the stretch in the Cook County,, not through any fault of th at council, but because the country happens to be morb difficult to maintain a road on, and because the road is older nnd more worn than the pwee 'further north. The road has been, metalled bv the Cook County for a distance of about two miles beyond T a^a P°,; 1 l (, 1 ' leaving something over twelve miles yet to be done before there is a continuous metalled road between GisWne and the Pakarae River bridge which marks the boundary between Cook and Uawa Counties. Oil the other side of the boundary thprer is hardly any metal until Tolaga Bay is reached so that in order to Jink up with the Cook County in a main road metalling scheme, Uawa County would require to lav some nine or ten miles of metal, and this through a sparsely settled portion of its district. Cook County has a loan proposal for £154 000 to come before its ratepayers on July 4 for metalling and targrouting its main roads, and hopes for a Government subsidy ot £42,000 on the loan. It proposes to tar-grout tho whole length of the mam north and south road in the county. Uawa County has a metalling programme, but it is deferring it pending Government assistance. If the Cook County programme is carried there should soon be metalled roads all the way from Wellmgton, via Napier and Wairoa and Bis borne to within twelve miles of lolag:> Bay.

HINTS AND TIPS Always ua» the same size tires on both rear wmeels. If you have an over-size on one rear wheel the differential gear will be in action whenever the car moves. In this way considerable power is lost and the differential are unnecessarily worn. We particular to keep the steering mechanism in good order and well lubricated. Many motorists who grease and oil other parts will let the steering gear go unlubricated for months at a time. A piece of chamois leather makes an excellent filter for motor spirit. Many carburettor troubles are eliminated if petrol is always properly strained.

A defect to which press-buttons, used so freely on many cars, are prone is that they become either tight or loose. ? i they are tight, a little gentle squeezing with a pair of gas pliers will reduce the overall diameter of the male member, and cause it to engage readily. If the knob is plated, a piece of rag should be interposed to prevent scratching. Very little pressure will suffice. Similarly, if the fitting evinces a tendency to come undone, a very light tap from a hammer on the top of the knob will flatten it enough to restore its fit in the cap member, rag being again interposed to protect the plating from damage. Driving a car around a corner at twenty-five miles an hour does more

damage to the tires than does fifteen or twenty-five miles of straight road work. The other reasons for driving cautiously and slowly arotind corners aro obvious. Co Steady with New Motor Bicycles. The 'motor-cyclist who has just taken delivery of a new machine is naturally very anxious to discover its capabilities a( vhe first possible moment. : To desire to know without delay “just what she will do” is very natural, and one cannot wonder that the average rider lets his new machine ‘fall out” at the first possible opportunity after he has taken possession, so that he may tell his friends that “she will do 50, and climbs stiff hills on top.” He would bo more wise, however, to remember that his new machine may be well worth over a hundred pounds’ worth of somewhat complicated mechanism, and that on the wav in which it is treated during the early days of its life will depend the service and satisfaction to be obtained from it later on. So temptation should be resisted, and for tho first 500 miles, at any rate, the throttle should never be opened more than half-way. This will give the piston and cylinder and all the other bearing parts an opportunity to bed down properly and develop really smooth surfaces before they are called upon to carry heavy loads. The maker of the machine takes great care to grind the rurface of the cylinder and piston to ls smooth a finish as possible, but. it is impossible by any form of machinery. however accurate, to produce the beautifully polished surfaces which result from the two parts rubbing over each other under light loads. The same thing applies to the buyer of a new car. except in this case there is more money at stake. The manner in which a new car is handled for the first 1000 miles is a big factor in its future service.