THE MOTOR.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXII, Issue 46, 23 August 1911, Page 4

THE MOTOR.

• (By "Autos.") It has been well said that the futufe of the motor-car lies rather with the commercial vehicle than, with the private car. For the private person desiring a Car for his private use fo good and reliable motor will never, so far as, at present, we can see, be something cheap that the man in the street— the ordinary average citizen— can afford either +o buy or to tun. The £100 car, bo often advocated, has yet to emerge as a com mercial factor in the market* It is possible, doubtleK9, to make a vehicle motor-driven and with something liks the Appearance of an ordinary car to sell for £100, and it has lately been done, and one has been put on the market at Home. But with its friction and^ chain drive and its one-cylinder engine and wooden reinforced frame it is a very different thing from the neat and natty silent-running four-cylinde* 1 cat* one sees in the street— 4he car that coste from £300 "to £600. Even the cheap American cars do not comply, so to speak, with specification. So it is safe to say that the genuine £100 motorcar is still a thing of the future, -which, perhaps, the future may never bring forth to light. * On the other hand, the motof-cycle ranging in price from £50 to £100 has leaped into vastly increased popularity The motor-cycle is coming into ite'own. Recent races and trials have shown ite handiness and reliability, and the superior balancing and springing have made it comfortable to nde-*a marked contrast to the bumpy, vibrating contraptions of only a few years ago. The introduction of the sidVcai 1 also has given us a fairly good substitute for the £100 motor-car of dream«. All this hae meant a boom for the motor-cycle, which is likely to last for a long time to come^ as its price puts it within reach of a, vastly greater public than can possibly afford to look at a motor-CaTi Again, the increasing use of the motorcycle for commercial purposes opens up another wide field and • market. In America the police have it in scores of towns,, and, in New Zealand it is used by the score " by travellers; and agents for the purposes of their business. The enhanced popularity of the motor-cycle is easily intelligible in this light, just as it is visible from ,the number e€en in and about the city. li is in the wotld of commerce that the motor will find its latest And most peiKnanent demand. If it can be shown the merchant, the manufacturer, the shopkeeper, and the business man that the motor Vehicle is a better £s. d. proposition than the horse vehicle, then the motor will ■ supersede the hoTad, as it is ( rapidly doing at Home, for cotm mercial as well as for Business purposes. The commercial motor must present an all-round saying to justify its, adoption by commercial men. This it is already doing. Without betraying any trado secrets, there is a commercial motor delivery van in this city that wa-s purchased by an enterprising firm as an experiment. It was a pretty expensive experiment, costing somewhere hear £500, enough to buy half a dozen horses and carts, or more^ On* such a capital outlay the commercial motor must show very substantial economies indeed. Did it do so? Is it doing so? It did and is doing so. It does in a few hours what took the _ horse delivery van a whole day ; and it puts in the remaining , lime pushing the firm's business further afield than ever horses could reach. It shows very considerable economy in upkeep, for it is not eating money while it does nothing— 'not like a horse. It is rapidly paying for itself in the few months it has been tin existence, and, if one , could include in. its achievements the remarkable advertisement it has given the firm and ita < produce, one would be inclined to cay it had paid fo* itself. This particular car has solved for all practical business purposes the question of the reliability of the commercial car of the light delivery van class. The pioneer firm is more than satisfied with it, and ite experience seems amply sufficient to guarantee othera in any venture of a corresponding nature. ! Then comes the other class of commercial motor, the heavy motoT lorry which I corresponds to the horse and Wagon as the light delivery van corresponds to the express. There ate several heavy ! motor lorrie* -mi Wellington now, including th© steam wagons, which, however, might well be excluded here as I not being strictly the motor class. But there is the Post Office motor parcels lorry, the pioneer of its kind 3 and very successful it' ha* been. By the way, it would be well to mention, the Postal motor mail vans in the light class. They, too, have beeft sncofcesfnl, and the Post Office, the most efficient and up to date of all the Government departments, hae even its' motor cycle and delivery side car. The parcels wagon is an Albion, ac ie also a similar lorry recently introduced by the Union Steam Ship Company for various uses in connection with the fleet), and the stores and laundry ashore. Both these Albions appear to be highly successful. But at the Hutt is an Albion passenger wagonette, an improvement on tfie earlier types of motor 'bus. that did not create a, very favourable impression in New Zealand. The Scott Motor Agency has recently landed a fine Kommer chassis of the heavy type, somewhat similar to the Albiotis already in use. There appears to be a really good field foT vehicles like tlreee all ovw the country. ' Under' the category of the commercial motor one might, perhaps, include th« fine battery of motor fire engines in tht Central Fire Brigade Station, and tin multitude of tasicabe. But the taxi k h build a private car. 'The only different k that it plies for hire. The. motw fire engine represents the complete success and reliability of the heavy motoj \ehicle running on> solid tires. Bui tlw ca?es are not quite- the samo even ltfr* Th<? firo engine is usually a very highly pov.eN>d motor, nd the consumption r> petrol is only a minor consideration, I

is one of tho chief considerations in the commercial motor properly bo called. Economy in cost of running and upkeep ie everything. Now there are commercial motors and commercial motors. _ To put a commercial body oti a touring car chassis ie to coutt disaster, for the conditions are bo entirely different. The engine for the Commercial motor vehicle ought to be a much simpler machine, much cheaper to build and nrnuitaan than the silent private automobile engine. There ie no very particular call fc* lAstddiousroess ac to appearance and Bilencs. Instead of a. four-cylinder eh« gine, a two-cylinder well-balanced might do just as well on a heavy truck. Then the sliding gear is not altogether satisfactory for the commercial motor with its heavier load* artd greater streesea There is scop© here for the inventor. Again, petrol is t pretty expensive fuel for tho commercial lorry. An, engine that Would use kerosene (and thefe are som«) would here have ft big advantage in reducing th« cost o! fuel by 200 per cent, or bo. Given a" motor that can Jmn on kerosene, is ekong, reliable, ajid simple to work, fairly cheap to buy, can climb hills, a,nd keep up fair Bpeeds, and it will not be long before th© draught horse— -the poor overloaded draaghi-— will be pensioned off to end his days away from onr streets, which will know him and Tiis kind no more.