MOTORS and MOTORING.

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 57, 29 November 1924, Page 22

MOTORS and MOTORING.

(BY

"SPOTLIGHT.”

HUTT COUNTY ROAD SCHEME A SOUND PROPOSAL GOOD ROADS FOR A LOAN OF £29,000. The course of events has played into the hands of the Hutt County Council to a remarkable extent during the past twelve months, and the county ratepayers are on December 19 to be afforded the opportunity of voting for what is undoubtedly the cheapest and most economical good roads scheme yet offered any rural district in the Dominion. This exceedingly favourable I result is not due to any unsound cheeseparing in the proposals put forward, but solely to the fact that in addition to the ordinary Highways Board subsidy, totalling £50,000, the council will have a further £35,000 of Hutt Road Board money, leaving only a modest £45,000 as its share of a total expenditure of £130,000. Hutt Cbunty, with two main roads converging on the capital city of the Dominion, and running through rough country, much of it of comparatively small rateable value, was originally in a difficult position, but one after the other plums have fallen into its lap. Of its original 42 miles of main l6 miles over the Paekakariki and Rimutaka Hills have been taken over as Government road, and have had huge sums expended on their improvement. A further seven miles of main road is to have a luxurious pavement of a type as high as on many of the most densely traffic roads in the United States, and this is to be laid out of the Hutt Road motor tax revenue. • ( . There thus remain only 20 miles of main road out of an original 42 to be maintained by Hutt County, anu by the scheme now brought down by the County Council the county, ratepayers can have this mileage widened and surfaced with a £1 for £1 subsidy of motorists’ money from the Highways Board, at no greater cost than is involved in the present unsatisfactory macadam maintenance. A Comparison. How extraordinarily favourable are the circumstances in Hutt County may be judged from the fact that to surface 48 miles of main road Horo whenua County ratepayers will have to find £74,000 out of the total cost of £148,000. Hutt County gets its 42 miles done with only a loan of £45.000 to shoulder. It will be quite a sound proposition for Horowhenua to do its roads and spend its £74,000, and from the motorists' pome of view the objection to the £2 of motorists’ money to £1 of ratepayers’ nmaev on Hutt County main roads, is that it sets a bad precedent of unloading an altogether undue proportion of the cosu of road improvement on the backs of motor vehicle owners. A 50-50 basis as under the Highways Act is a fair one, but the Wellington motorists being soft in the head or presumably having more money than he knowa what to do with, is being bled to an unconscionable extent by the local bodies. However, some people think Hutt County ratepayers will probably go tc sleep over their loan polh and let the scheme lapse, and when the avalanche of new taxes descends on the motor vehicle owners next year—every private car owner in Wellington has £5 in taxes to pav between January 1 and May 1. 1925, and lorrv owners much mare—motorists will probably insist on more equitably arrangements from .their point of view in anv future schemes.

Ratepayers to Rake in the Profits. It is necessary to remember that not only will Hutt County have its roads brought up to present-day requirements at no extra cost to its ratepayers—who, by the by, are let off extraordinarily lightly in the way of rates—but the whole of the unearned ipcreinent following on those improvements will go into the pockets of those ratepayers. There is plenty of testimony from Taranaki to the effect that people will pay more for a farm that has the convenience of access to some centre by a paved road. Hutt County will benefit to a far larger extent by the fact that its rural lands will become far more conveniently accessible to city dwellers than at present. Good roads to Lowry Bay, York Bay, and Day’s Bay will benefit property owners there ; they will add materially to land values in the Trentham and Upper Hutt district, and will mean the development of week-end haunts still further afield in adjacent localities. On the West Coast Road. as soon as the gaps in Makara County are dealt with, Plimmerton will benefit and the pleasant countrj’ side around Porirua Harbour generally will come into its own, while further afield the seaside resorts at Paekakariki and Paraparaumu will go rapidly ahead. In the aggregate this means that —mainly at the expense of the motor vehicle owner —Hutt County ratepayers stand to have considerable sums in unearned increment put in their pockets But, of course, the old idea still holds good of the “wealthy motorist” being fair game for everybody. Motor vehicles already contribute £723,000 per annum in Customs duties to the revenue, and with motor taxes and heavy traffic taxes in 1925 the 60,000 motor vehicle owners will next year bo paying out well on to £900,000, or so, towards the revenue, of which sum only a fraction will bo spent on the reads. The whirligig of time brings in his revenges, but it is curious to reflect that less than eighteen months ago “Spotlight’ 1 ’ was being soundly belaboured for having the effrontery to suggest that it would pay Hutt County to put bitumen surfaces on its main roads. And in saying it would pay, “Spotlight” never dreamt in the wildest moments of what the late county chairman called his . “little day-dream,” that both the Highways Board and the Hutt Road Board were going to fall over one another in a frantic rush to wet nurse the baby. However, it seems that Hutt County is not out of the wood yet. The County Council itself is in a fair way to get into the van of progressive, up-to-date counties which are alive to what a good thing they have in the Highways Act, but it is worried as to whether its ratepayers are awake to the, lapful of plums . waiting to be pickled up by carrying the loan poll on December 19. If Hutt County ratepayers are too apathetic to go to the polling booth to vote for a scheme which means £2 of motorists’ money for every £1 of the ratepayers’ money, they must be just about too tired to live, and any idea of that sort is a gross libel on. the district.

Ford owners are often at a loss where to put the many articles usually needed. Hero are a few tips: Maps and books strap on to the coilbox, where they ar£ quite out of sight. A spare plug holder is easily nailed under the bonnet on the dash. A shaped strip of metal and a leather strap and buckle do the trick. Four quart tins of lubricating oil will go under the front seat on the side of the tank, two each side. Some of the larger tools will stow away down each side of the front seat. The wrench, yim tool, screwdriver, hub spanner, ' waste and rags will stow away there. They must be removed before lifting the front seat. An oilcan will sling under the bonnet by putting wire hooks on the radiator stay rod.

MILE-POSTING THE ROADS i 4 WHAT AKE THE DISTANCES TRAVELLERS REQUIRE. New Zealand’s main highways are in an unmeasured state. Each county knows more or less accurately the measurement of its own stretches, but the -whole has never been properly pieced together, and the result is that the distance from anywhere to anywhere else is what somebody’s speedometer makes it, and as the next man’s speedometer' makes it something else there are any number of rival sets of mileages to choose from. The Highways Board is finding that in connection with its road maintenance and construction works accurate mileages running from end to end of the various highways are necessary. To secure these it will probably be necessary to send out parties to chain the roads, two men to do the chaining and one to note the position of bridges, road junctions, and other points of importance in connection with'road works. A peg will be driven in exactly at each mile, but to save the expense of special mile posts the nearest telegraph posts may possibly be used as mile ppsrts for the guidance of travellers. This will not be exactly accurate, but near enough for practical purposes. The two_ great North Island highways are No. 1, which begins at Wellington and runs via Levin, Foxton, Wanganui, Stratford, Waitara, To Kuiti,, and Auckland, to Kaitaia in the extreme far north, and No. 15, which starts from Wellington and runs via the Wairarapa, Hawke’s Bay, Wairoa, Gisborne, Opotiki, Tauranga, and Waihi, to junction with No. 1 at Pokeno, 40 odd miles south of Auckland. On No. 1 highway the extreme northern portion from Auckland to Kaitaia will probably be treated for mile-post purposes as a separate highway. and will show mileages from Auckland and Kaitaia, making no reference to distances from Wellington. On the rest of No. 1 highway, the distances from Wellington and from Auckland will, of course, be marked on each mile-post, but it is also felt that a demand will arise for the distances to and from the chief intermediate centres such as Wanganui, New Plymouth, Hamilton, etc. Just to what extent it is desirable and useful to travellers to have distances showing on sign boards or posts along the roads is a point on which the Highways Board would be glad of the views of the automobile associations. In view of the pace of motor-cars any elaborate schedule of distances on every mile-post would appear to be a waste of money. The useful places for schedules of distances, to “Spotlight’s” mind, are on coming to a town or a road junction. On reaching the township it is distinctly useful to know how far it is to the next. This is helpful in the matter of fuel for the tank, meals, accommodation, and shopping generally. At a road junction it is also useful to know the distance of an ultimate destination to which each road leads, the first big town along it, and the first town of any sort. “Spotlight’s” personal predilection on the mileage question thus works out: — (1) At either end of every town, township, or. village, a board with —(a) The name of the place in large letters across the top of it; (b) the name and distance of the place where the highway ends; -(c) the name and distance of the next large centre along the highway ; and (d) the name and distance of the next place of any sort with accommodation for travellers. (2) At every road junction a fingerpost giving (b), (c), and (d). (3) At every mile the mileage from either end of the highway painted on the nearest telegraph post. It is in the selection of the larger centres along the routes to be listed on the boards that differences of opinion

arise, but if the practical objective is kept in view a selection should be reasonably easv. The larger centre shown on the signboard should be th© nearest place where good hotel accommodation can be obtained, and extensive repairs can be effected to a motor vehicle; and the small centre (the name of which would be shown in smaller letters) should mean the nearest place where a belated traveller can get some sort of a meal and a bed. On a main highway th© names of places that cannot provide travellers with lodging ar© not worth putting up, as with such names up the signboard ceases to be the friend in meed it should be to wayfarers on a strange road.

In endavouring to avoid three drunken pedestrians, a motor-bus in England ran off th© road and more or less injured all the 13 passengers, according to a newspaper report. It is understood that jnotorists will now urge that any person in charge of his legs while drunk shall be liable to imprisonment.

TWO LICENSE HOLDERS WELLINGTON CARS ALL CLUTTERED UP. Motorists are at present only dimly aware of the various duties, obligations, and fees that are to descend on them like an avalanche after the New Year. Wellington motorists between January and April next will have to pay up a matter of £5 o r so in four or five different lots of fees and are due to put in quite a lot of time filling up fonns, taking off their (in many cases) beautiful electroplated number plates and throwing them on the scrap heap and screwing on the new ones the Post Office will SU They will also' probably have to buy a metal license holder to exhibit their annual license under the Motor Venicles Act, and the City Council has power to order them to bn.v a s <g°nd license holder to put their Hutt Road tax ticket in. What is left of the windscreen after these gadgets have been screwed up can be used for seeing the traffic on the road. • It is to be hoped that the City Council will make an effort to avoid the necessity for a second license holder and come to some amicable arrangement with the Government by which payment of the Hutt Road tax can be indicated on the license holder issued by the Government. This could be quite easily (lone if on the Government license card enough cleai space were left for a co.oured sticker about the size of a postage stamp to be affixed on payment ot Hutt Road tax. On such a sticker the City Council could put a sufficient device to indicate that the Hutt Road tax for the year had been paid, and one license holder would thus provide information as to payment of both the national and the Wellington tax. Another complication under the new regime that Wellington municipal authorities • might do well to look into—• if it has not received their attention already—is the position that will arise when existing motor marks and numbers are scrapped. There is a rumour that all North island cars will beai the letters “N. 1. and a number, with no further indication of the part from which they hail. If this proves to be so how is anybody to know whether a motor-vehicle in Wellington not bearhm a Hutt Road tax mark is one that should have it? It will not be much of an advertisement for Wellington if every visiting North Island motorist has ‘to bo bailed up and put through a cross-examination to prove that he comas from outside of the Wellington special tax distnet. In fact, there are quite a number of kttlo matters that the Wellington . auhorities might advantageously look into to have then local taxing scheme working as smooth. l y as possible in conjunction with the national tax.

WHEN A CAR CATCHES FIRE

WHAT SHOULD YOU DO? Among various cases reported of late concerning burnt-out cars, there was one in which it was stated that tho driver “switched off” (his ignition) before he jumped and abandoned the vehicle to its fate. , Commenting on this, the London “Motor” says:— . ~ What he hoped to gain thereby—it the report is correct—is by no means dear, but it may at least be pointed out that such an expedient is useless, and in certain circumstances is the very opposite of what ought to be done.. . . , . A useful hint may bo enjoined irom aircraft practice. Tohvards the end of the war, when the training of pilots had become systematised to a hign degree of efficiency, they were specifically instructed what to do in the event of an engine showing names as the result of a backfire to the carburetter, “Turn the petrol off. but leave the ignition on,” was the injunction. With the engine still running the flames were thus drawn inwards until the flow of spirit stopped ; the pilot sis instructed to keep the tnachino, 'meanwhile. at an acute angle so that the flames would not reach the fuselage. Saving tha Car. Applying this injunction to the motor-car, one may see that in certain cases it would work. There is little or no hope for a car if a fire is caused through faulty filling of a tank, or through a leak from a petrol pipe; but, in the case of a mere backfire, it is quite another matter. There is very little woodwork about the modem car, and, if the flow of petrol can be stopped and the flanie of the carburetter automatically extinguished before the footboards have been set alight, the situation can bo saved. But it is an unfortunate fact that many drivers have lost their heads tho moment they have seen anything in the nature of a flame, and have promptly “given up the ghost.” A much-to-be-regretted fact is tnat on many cars tho .petrol tap is placed in a more or less inaccessible position.

“Safe-drivers’ Clubs,” by ope name or another, are being formed in many parts of tho States. The usual procedure is to enrol those motorists who are willing to pledge themselves, to observe all safety rules, and to do what they can to promote the cause of street and highway safety. Literalists possibly will say that it should not be necessary to pledge good citizens to live up to the standards of good citizenship, yet, at the same time, it is urged that even good citizens on many occasions need to remind themselves of matters that go to thus classify them, and that those who are consistently within the pale of good citizenship should take an open stand.

Good progress is reported to be made by -the contractors for the erection of the bridge over the Rangitikei River at Springvale, on +he Taihape to Napier road. The “Hawke’s Bay Herald” says it is expected that tlje bridge will bo completed in-February and will enable motorists to make the through trip from Napier to Taihape with little difficulty. A start is shortly to be made with the bridge across the Rangitikei River at the Mangawhero crossing, and when this is completed motorists will be fortunate in ‘ having the choice of two routes between Taihape and Napier, which will then be brought within a four hours’ journey of the Main Trunk railway. Preparations are already being made to establish a through motor service on the first route to he. opened up.

JOTTINGS Oamaru is now holding its second Olympia Motor Show. A North Shore branch of tho Auckland Automobile Association has been formed The" Waintii-o-mata Hili, particularly on tho Lower Hutt side, is ia a very rough state. The Rangiriri deviation by wliich a metalled road will be provided over this dreaded section of the HamiltonAuckland Road, is expected to bo complete by AprilDraft regulations under the Motor Vehicles Act, which comes into force on January 1 have been circulated confidf ntially by the Government, and have been under consideratvm b.v the Automobile Associations this week. Provision is to be made, by the Highways Board for the qualifications and training of road foremen in charge of bituminous surfacing work under the Highways Board schemes. A Gospel motor caravan is.being put on the road by the Open Brethren of Auckland to snread the ’Gospel in the back-blocks where churches arc few. It succeeds a horse-drawn caravan. The small unmetalled gap on the Wellington - West Coast - Auckland highway near Otorohanga has now been metalled. This gives a metalled road right through from Awahino to Hamilton. The road, however, is stated to be rough near Te Awamutu. The- rates for the carriage of cars by the railway in the direction of the West Coast are as follow :—Christchurch to Otira, £2 1.65.; Christchurch to Arthur’s Pass, £2 125.; Springfield to Otira, £1 145.; Springfield to Arthur’s Pass. £1 10s. Motorists can now truck their cars right through from Christchurch to Otira. Canterbury Automobile Association reports state that the Clarence River punt on the Blenheim-Clfristchurch road is again in action. The Waimakariri River, on the ChristchurchWest Coast road. was fordable at latest advices. The South Westland road to Franz Josef glacier was reported to be rough in parts. A big budget of new features is to be included in the new issue of the Wellington Automobile Club’s Year Book, which’ will be. circulated to members about ten days before the holidays. The book has been delayed to include a full digest of 'the new motor legislation. Maps showing* metalled and unmeta'lled roads and giving section plans of the mainNorth Island routes will be among tho contents. Referring to his recent visit to the South Island to inspect the roads taken over by the Main Highways Board, Mr. J. D. Bruce, South Island counties member on the board, informed the Christchurch “Press” that, upon the whole, these roads had been improved; it was also found that the estimates were being exceeded and more work was being done than was originally contemplated; this in itself was satisfactory. The annual report of the South Canterbury Automobile Association states that the membership totals 477. “Roadster.” in tho “Press,” remarks that this is a particularly fine record, making the Timaru organisation, in proportion to its area, one of the strongest bodies in New Zealand. Its district is not a large eno. for Wai-, mate has its own association. Less than four years ago, when Mr. E. A. Scott took over the- secretaryship, the membership was less than 10<J. Some good work has been done since then. It is stated that in Kansas the police court judge in every case where' a. person, is brought up for some offence arising merely out of ignorance, supplies the offender, in the case of an accident, with a copy of the safety rules, and then adjourns the case. If in a few davs* time the offender shows under examination that ho has an intelligent knowledge of the rules, he is acquitted. The American practice is also quoted, of making offenders spend a certain number of hours at a congested traffic corner . with a traffic officer. These simple but strange P"iroesses, it is stated, have done much to stamp out a craze for speed that was threatening the safety of thousands of people. UNSCRATCHABLE PAINT A BOON TO CAR OWNERS. It has hng been realised, says “Tho •Motor” (England), that the ordinary processes of painting, rubbing down, and varnishing, while hey can be made to give an extremely beautiful appearance to a motor-car body when new, are anything but ideal from the point of view of the user who desires a finish which shall require the minimum of attention and possess the maximum of durability. During rhe past twelve months this subject has received very great attention from paint and colour specialists. Entirely new materials and processes have been developed. some of •which have been made possible by experience gained with aeroplane dopes during the war. The surface obtained by the use of these materials is so hard that it cannot be scratched with road dust-, and consequently the body ; only requires rubbing down periodically, washing being unnecessary. Mud can be removed after drying on and being left for several weeks, without danger of damaging the surface. Then again, the celluloid enamels used aro not affected by petrol or benzine, so that these solvents can be used for remov’ng tar spots without damaging tho finish.