SPEED

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 58, 1 December 1934, Page 6

SPEED

In that part of yesterday’s Dominion which noted the happenings of 25 years ago there was a paragraph-recording a deputation from the Makara County Council to the Minister of Internal Affairs protesting against “scorching” motor-cars and motor-cycles, and a complaint by the chairman of that body to the effect that he had seen a car race a train from Petone to Wellington at a pace estimated at . miles an hour, “scattering other traffic on the road in all To the younger generation accustomed to see a definitely-dated flivver crawling along the Hutt Road at that pace and being passed by motorbuses even, it must almost seem as if these worthy councillors hao come out of the Ark. Twenty-five years have witnessed an almost incredible speeding up of human traffic. The then Minister, who listened sympathetically to the protests from Makara and promised to do something in a Bill about it, had no idea what the future had in store for his successors in the way or keening legislative pace with the speed of progress and the progress of speed. Twenty-five years ago it was considered that the road speeds of that day had reached the safety limit for both man and machine. But the motor engineers in lhe testing-rooms, and the crack Olivers on the racing tracks, have been making history since then. Ihe problem for the future is to make developments in road-engineering keep pace with the increasing demand for a higher speed average. People may marvel at to-day’s speeds as compared with those of 25 years ago, but the generation of 25 years hence will probably marvel as much at present safety limits. Sir Malcolm Campbell hopes to attain 300 miles an hour in his next attempt to break the land speed record. Airmen have flown from England to Australia in three days. Others propose to fly round the world in four. It may well be asked, What next. But progress keeps on.