THE MOTOR.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXI, Issue 103, 3 May 1911, Page 10

THE MOTOR.

♦ . (By "Autos.") v Motorists will not find any satisfaction ill the 'reply given by 'the Minister of Public Works to a deputation on Thursday last asking for additional Government assistance in rebuilding Abbott's Creek bridge, on the Wairarapa side of the Rimutakas. The Government, ho 6aid, wae prepared -to assist to the extent of one-half the cost of the bridge, the local authorities to provide the other half and do the work. To put the road over the hill in proper repair would cost £5000 or £6000. So that the bridge would be only a small part of the work. The Government did not believe in maintaining a, road when there was a railway contiguous to it. The reßult of improving the road would be to put it into competition with the railway in. carrying stock over the Rimutaka. The Rimutaka-road ie very far from being contiguous with the railway. There are miles of impossible country between the two. If the road were contiguous, is tha Government going to force the public to use the railway? Are farmers to ship their stock by rail at Featherston and motorists their cars and train to the Upper Hutt? And is the reverse process of motorists and motor-cyclists going to be enforced out of Wellington? The Rimutaka is the only outlet from Wellington to the Wairarapa by road, and Mr. M'Kenzie wants it closed. The same would apply to the Hutt-road. If there were no highway between Wellington and Pefcone, people would be compelled to go by train, and fhe Government would profit. If the road had not been made', nearly £100,000 would have been saved the country. But what a saving at what a cost ! The cases of the Hutt-road and the Rimutaka-road are exactly on all fours in principle. The Rimutaka-road is an absolute necessity to Wellington and the Wairarapa. It should be, as a main arterial road, declared a 'Dominion road, and on that ground be maintained by tho Government. The use of it cannot bo narrowed down to local authorities. It would be as unfair to ask the Wellington City Council and the various Hutt Valley and Wairarapa local bodies to contribute as to throw the whole cost on the Featherston County Council. The automobile • and motor-cycle clubs cannot fairly be asked- to 'bear the cost, in the ■present state of affairs. But I do not' think the average motorist or motorcyclist would object if the road was made a toll-road and a toll were exacted for the use of .it, the money so obtained to go to the; maintenance and improvement of the road. "In Taranaki toll-gates have come in again, and, though there was some opposition at first, the public has acquiesced and pays up willingly, seeing how the roads haye v been improved. The toll-gate ehould not be regarded a 6a" permanent institution, but, where there is exceedingly heavy traffic over, roads, as in Taranaki, or where a road is costly to make and maintain and is yet an arterial road, as the one over the Rimutaka, the toll-gate is, in the writer's opinion, a useful temporary makeshift. The ideal, of course, is Government roads, as Government _ railways, provided political influence is kept out; but, in the meantime, when money is tight or where the whole burden would otherwise fall on the un1 fortunate impecunious local body in whose district the road runs, the users should undoubtedly pay for their> privilege in using tho road. While on the road, I ehould not forget another grievance that motoriste and motor-cyclists, among other members of the public, justly urge against the controllers of highways and byways in varioub parts, of the country. This is the absence of proper road indications. "In some parts_ 0! the quondam Forty-Mile Bush, for instance, one ought to carry a Dominion .Scout, or, perhaps a Boy ditto, to spy out the way. Roads branch in a most irritating way without the leaet suggestion as to their destination, and a motorist may lose himself a dozen times a day in these maz^s, unless he can summon the wisdom of a country cicerone to his aid. Some day I hope to prepare a list of places in the Wellington district where such guideposts aie wanted, but they are too numerous to * recall now. But on the way to Palmerston or to Masterton it is quite possible to miss the way with comparative ease. The bridging of small creeks on main roads is another reform wanted particularly by the motor-cyclist. There are two such obstacles between Wellington and Masterton, and two or three between Wellington" and PaJmerston. It will be one of the first duties of the Auto-cycle Union of New Zealand, suggested in my last column, and of a Dominion Automobile Association, to keep these drawbacks to an otherwise fairly good; road system steadily in view — not only of ourselves, but of tho authorities that be. Mr. A. Cleave, lion, secretary of the Auckland Automobile Association and proprietor and ' publisher of the Now Zealand Motor and Cycle Journal. Auckland, who has been in Wellington some days, left on his return to Auckland, via New Plymouth, during tlie week. An ardent motorist himself, Mr. Cleave had something to say on the roads on the overland route twixt Auckland and Wellington. / "It is nearly eight 'years ago," said he, "since I started off in a locomobile steam car from Auckland to Wellington. This car was the first motor vehicle that had ever managed the journey between Auckland and Napier. It was in the winter months, and very great difficulties were experienced on the .trip. Since then I have mad© the run through every year from Auckland to Wellington. The journey from Taupo over the Tauranga, Kura, and Titio Kura is, in my opinion, the fLiest motor journey in the Dominion, and it is really a crying shame that the Government does not put this road in better order. In some seasons of the year it is almost an absolute impossibility to run through without assistance. Very little improvement in the roads has been effected since my first visit. On the other hand, the track 30 miles north of Napier is like a billiard-table. But after leaving that point the roads are hardly worthy the name. The close proximity of Napier to the thermal district in itself should be sufficient reason for the Government to do something," ad&ed Mr. Cleave, who expresses high admiration, for the roads in and about the capital. "They are infinitely better in and around Wellington," he declared, "than the majority of the roads in the North. At the least, they compare more than favourably with the tracks in the Auckland district." Mr. Cleave is now driving a 22 horse-power Silent Knight Daimler car — a car enjoying much popularity in the North. I had the pleasure of a trip last week in the "Daphne" express delivery motor van round Oriental Bay, Roseneath, and the upper heights of Mount Victoria. Though the engine is only two-cylinder 12 horhe-power, it behaved beautifully, and carried the party ' up some ol' the steepest and worst roads in Wellington* practically tho whole way on the second gear. Tho third was only used to negotiate some bad corners strewn with rough, now metal. The absolute control the powerful brakes have on the car was shown on that dangerous, narrow, steep bit into Hawker-street, where the leafet failure would land a car over a precipice, into the houses below. Altogether, the "Daphne" butter motor van is easily the best commercial vehicle of its kind ,

in the Dominion at tho present time. | In fact, there is nothing really in the same class. Other light delivery vans have been converted touring cars, a.nd the heavy wagons belong to a different category altogether. A characteristic of the Renault chassis is the extreme simplicity of the transmission and controlling gear. The veriest amateur could drive it. The engine and transmission is of the Renault type in one unit with Renault clutch. The exhaust comes out under the step in front, leaving tho body free, quite apart from its special" insulation, from all noxioua fumes. The speed along Oriental Bay, when the driver opened her up, was nearly thirty miles an hour, which was reduced to a' walking pace almost instantaneously in a tight corner. The car is capable of carrying a ton, and habitually does the city and the suburbs, including the Hutt Valley, with anything up to 16 cwt. abroad. She will climb any hill with full load. Messrs. Hill and Barton, Ltd., are to be congratulated on their enterprise in introducing this instrument or rapid transport, which will probably be the _ forerunner of many others. • The chassis was supplied by the Scott Motor Agency, of Cuba-street extension, who are agents for Renault Freres, of Billancourt. The body-work was by Rouse and Black, Ltd.