MOTOR CARS TWENTY YEARS AGO.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3130, 14 August 1922, Page 8

MOTOR CARS TWENTY YEARS AGO.

(By H. Aforiioii-Hnnt). Motorists twenty years ago wore heroes. AVho aa-i 11 deny it? They never kncAV lioav long trie shortest journey Avonld take —and seldom knew av bet her it Avonld ever end at all. A fifty-mile journey Avas tinsignal for the Avhisky flask. The spirit of adventure Avas,abroad on the road. In those days. too. motor ears Avere much more emiimon in Era nee than in England. The British manufacturer Avas inijicdcd by legislation. France, on the other hand, was doing everything in her poAver to develop the motor industry, and important road races Avere already being organised each year. Such was her superiority in producing automobiles that tAventy years ago it was the universal fashion to go to Paris to buy a ear, and British manufacturers bad to import their knoAV-k-dge by employing French designers and nieehanii s. In I SDH the first Grand Prix road race was held between i’aris ami Amsterdam, 4'hose cars that came throngh took six days over the journey. The start Avas a scene of terrific excitement. Fonr-AV heelers and fore-cars, motor tricycles and motor bicycles Avere all represented. Foremost in the procession were four Pa.nhanl racers, tinlatest models of {his already famous factory, Avhich wore built Avith four cylinders instead of tlie more usual Hvo. The fearful and unforgettable clatter of the exhaust ent-ont of these roaring monsters made a tremendous' impression cm the minds of the excited spectators. Those avlio aaxtc “in the knuAv” Aveio liptoe-ing about with an air of intense excitement, Avhispering ttith hated breath that the Panhards Avere not really of eight horse-power. No; they Avere actually ten! Would yon believe it? r l’en horse-poAver! Incredible. Crowds lined Ihe course, and the drivers Avere feted Avin-rever they stopped. Reference was made in a speech at the end of the race to the phenomenal speed attained. No less than thirty-one kilometres- or tAvenly-tAvo miles —an hour had been averaged by a ear lietAvecn Liege and Amsterdam ! No astonishing an average Avas regarded as an event of historic importance. The driver was a super-man. and those present Avere told that Ic-av of them Avonld ever see such a terrific speed again ! Yes. they wen great days for motoring. Days of real hard work and incessant tinkering, at the end of which the ear might or might not go roaring along the highway in .its cloud of dost and amid the ironical cheers of the local schoolboys. But the owner was a proud person all tin- same. He Avas a val-aiit pioneer of aa hat lias liceoim , in tAventy short years, an indispensable vehicle throughout the world. He amis the man avlio made possible the “llivAi-r" of to-day. 'file recent rise in the price of butter is understood to have had a marked effect in restricting consumption at Masterton. With so much good dairy hntler available consumers refused to pay the higher price for the factory article, and the demand fell off considerably. The holler market may be likened to the barometer- seldom “set ‘fair 1’ The .50,n0n workers iioav employed at the great Krnpp engineering works at Essen. Germany. Avork on an eight-hour •schedule. Avhich begins ;it G o’clock in the- morning. They have hut one 15minnte pause in their Avork, and they stop at 2.15. This gives them practically all the afternoon, as aacll as (lie evening, for amnseinenl.