THE MOTOR.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXI, Issue 50, 1 March 1911, Page 4

THE MOTOR.

— ■ '■» (By "Autos.") The recent week-end deluge has played havoc with many roads. The Abboiit's Creek ford, on the Wairarapa side of the Rimutakas, is absolutely impassible. A wash-out has left one side a sheer drop into the stream. Really something should be done with the proposed bridge. Antomabiliste have subscribed or guaranteed close on £100 and the Government has promised a subsidy, but friction with local bodies has frustrated, for the time being at any rate, a very promising scheme. The owner of the. land on each side of the stream is witting, the money is forthcoming, but the local body concerned is obdurate. It wants a full traffic road or nothing. Tire motorists desire only a two-track motor bridge, as they have no desire to build for the horseman or the driver of an ordinary vehicle. Probably a suspension bridge . will be needed after the receni) wash-out, Mr. Magnus, who contributed a very useful mileage distance-table of the Wel-lington-Wanganui trip to 'this column last week, sends me a speedometer record of the Wellington-Napier route. Unfortunately, Mr. Magnus did not get as far as Napier, but turned' off at Waipawa, Would some kind correspondent fill up the vacancy? WELLINGTON TO NAPIER, Via MASTERTON. Miles. Wellington to Petone tf.3 Petone to Lower Hutt P.O. ... 2.1 Wellington to Lower Hufct P. 0.... ' 9.+ Lower Hutt to Trentham ... 10.5 Wellington to Trentham ... 19.9 Trentham to Upper Hutt ... 1 Wellington to Upper Hutfc • ... 20.9 Upper Hutt to Kaitoke 7 Wellington to Kaitoko 27.9 Kaitoke to Summit, Bimutaka ... 6.7 Wellington to Summit, Rimutaka 34-.O Summit, Rimutaka ,to Featherston 7.2 Wellington to Featherston ... 41.8 Featherston to Qreyfcown . ... 7.9 Wellington to Greytown ... 49.7 Greytown to Carterton 5.6 Wellington to Cwtorton 55.3 Carterton to Masterton 9.1 Wellington to Maaterton ... 64.4Masterton to Mauriceville ... 13.6 Wellington to Mauricoville ... 78 Mauriceville to Eketahuna ... 15.9 Wellington to Eketahuna ... 93.9 Eketahuna to Pahiatua 16.1 . Wellington to Pahiatua 110 Pahiatua to Woodville 9.9 Wellington to Woodyille ... 119.9 Woodvillo to Dannevirke ... - 7.2 Wellington to Dannevirke ... 137.1 Dannevirko to Norsewood ... 13.4 Wellington to Norsswood ... 150.5 Norsewood to Takapau 10.7 Wellington to Takapau 16L2 Takapau to Waipukurau 14.4 Wellington to Waipukurau ... 175.6 Waipukurau to Waipawa ... 4.4 Wellington to Waipawa 180 I am very pleased to reoeive an invitation from Mr. E. J. Wackrill, hon. secretary of the Rangitikei and Maoawatu Motor Club, to attend the club's annual motor sports to-day at Feilding, but, unfortunately, I am not able to go. The sporta, which will take place on the racecourse, include the following programme of events :— (1) Tilting at the Ring, ' (2) Potato Race, (3) Musical Chairs, (4) Drawing Competition, (5) Steering Competition, (6) Driving round the course in a, fixed time. Other events may be included if time permits. The stewards are Messrs. F. Glasgow, N. Gorton, L. Gorton, A. James. Dr. Willis, and the secretary. I referred last week to an accident, to the differential gear of a local car. As the gear, which was stopped by a, loose nut, was of very heavy c design, it was impossible to ge^ duplicates anywhere. A local firm of engineers (Messrs. Yon Hartitsch and Collins) made a very good job of the repairs with a bevel gear, milled out by themselves. The work is really a credit to t the place, as any engineer knows the difficulty of making bevel gear. The insurance company, with which the car was insured, Said up at once without demur. It was 16 Royal Exchange Company. It may be interesting to describe how the papa is prepared for road metal. A huge thick layer of firewood is capped with a layer of rough papa, which is again topped with a layer of firewood. Then comes another layer of papa and another layer of firewood and papa again ad lib, until there is a regular funeral pyre. This is lit and then covered with earth. Ib burns like a- charcoal furnace or a brick kiln, until the bluey-white papa comes out in a beautiful hard terra cotta. This is dumped on the roads as. before mentioned, and the traffic does the rest. The cost is about 6s a cubio yard. It is eminently suitable for papa country, where firewood is to be had for the cutting and ordinary metal is unobtainable.. American papers to hand show the uses to which the automobile is adapted in the middle West and the far South. Here is a man cutting up firewood from a belt attached to his rear wheels, the car being jacked up for the purpose. Here another is shelling corn, and another grinding up bones for fowl food. Again, a man removes his tonneau and on the platform carries a plough, sacks of grain, bales of cotton, and what not. No wonder the automobile is popular in the Middle West* In some parts, where the drought prevails, it is used for ploughing, for horses cost a deal more to keep and steam is out of the question, from the cosb of carting fuel. This is where the future of automobile chiefly lies, and it is really a pity New Zealand farms are not alive to its ar-. vantages. Mr. T. 0. Jones, publicity agent of the Hupmobile world-touring party recently in Wellington, described many of the extraneous uses of the car to me. The Americans are out after the dollars to be picked up, and if they can be picked up here, why not? The party, by the way, had some pretty rough days of it, crossing the rocks, and made a regular GlidAen tour of the same trip. They were lucky in getting over in November; most times it is' snowed up there. The same T. 0. Jones had some great stories of building cars at Detriot. The figures seemed fabulous, and will not be quoted here. But English makers might undoubtedly copy in 'some- degree American methods of manufacture. It is said there is only about 25 dollars' profit on one particular well-known American car, but enough are sold to keep the works always agog. The parts go through a lengthy process and progress, starting in the rough at one end of the shop and emerging through sundry machines in the complete car at the other end. No time is lost in shifting gear. One man does one thing and perhaps a dozen men will operate or- one single part before it is complete. The man is the machine and the machine the man, but it pays. Personally, I take a deep interest in all machinery and the progress of invention. It puzzles me, therefore, to know why more is not made of the twocycle engine in motor work, when it is so popular in marine motor application. It is quite clear that theoretically the two-cycle engine should be able to do twice the work, weight for weight, that the ordinary four-cycle can do. There does, however, seem to be a waste in two-cycle motors throug h the incompleteness of scavenging and the loss of fuel into -the exhaust. These are not mechanically impossible obstacles to surmount. _ Local mechanicians might well devote some time to the solution of the two-cycle problem. There is money in