THE MOTOR.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 20, 24 January 1912, Page 4

THE MOTOR.

♦ ■. - (By "Autos.") Owing to the military training camp being held at Oringi th« week -beginning the 10th February, many motorcyclists who have to attend camp cannofi compete in the New Zealand Motor- j cycle Club's annual two days' reliability | trials on the 16th and 17th February, j The entries have been affected so seriously that the committee of the club has •decided to postpone the date of the trials. The exact day of postponement will bo fixed at a, meeting of the committee to be held' to-night. It is quite clear that for the future the necessities of military training must be ' carefully I considered by all sports bodies before making ibeir final arrangements for announcement to the public. No doubt in the case of motor-cycling the authorities will take into consideration themselves the value of the motor-cycl* and the, motor-cyclists in field operations. The Wellington. Races at .Trentham brought an unusually large number of cars into > town for ..the weekend.- In, Messrs. Tnglis Bros, garage alone on 1 " Friday night there were between twenty and thirty cars^of all sorts of sizes and makes — from limousine "sires" t't> the modest runabout. The value of the cars was roughly" estimated ,on present basis at over £12,000. Truly, there is an enormous amount of money laid out in motor care all over the world. It must ru& into hundreds of millions sterling. New Zealand owns its share, but hew there, are bo many people moderately well-off —wealth being fairly well distributed— that thia country is still in some respects on© of the best selling grounds for motor cars , anywhere. An interesting Teview of the motor and cycle trades from the investor's point of view us contained in The Economist of 9th December. Ite" general remarks may be quoted. It recalls the boom in motoring of 1907 , and the .slump which followed. "The new companies which were formed to take up the motor trade immediately entered oh a campaign of expensive advertisement and competition, add this was unfortunately followed by a period of depressed trade, as the result of whioh profits practically disappeared. Now, however, we have had two years of rising prosperity, tha motor companies have had time to improve their products and the demand for good cars is undoubtedly better than it has ever been. There is, however, another section of the trade which at the present moment seems likely to be of more importance than cars. This is the manufacture of motor cycles. Four years ago there was a great, increase in the popularity of motor cycling, due to a *apid rise in the "reliability of these machines. , Since then the number of riders Has risen Very fast, and ,we are noW in a °bdom" in' motor cycles, which strikingly resembles on a' smaller scale the cycle boom of the early 'nineties. Manufacturers of machines -With a' reputation are full up with orders, and canHot guarantee, delivery before next spring or early suftiirief. A feature of the new motor-cycling, craze is the popularity of the side car*, which not only makes the machine' sociable, but, of course, .converts the unstable twowheeler into- a three-wheeler, with a stability that is useful where Bpeed is not » consideration, or on wet surfaces, where its proneness to side-slip has , almost barred ihe motor cycle front- being other than a, dry -Weather machine.' , Few. will admit; however, that the side-car's popularity can be other than a phase. It necessitates a high-powered machine with relatively high maintenance and running expenses. The tendency of its owner must be to migrate in the direction of, the light car, or "runabout/ 1 which seems bound) tp supplant .the side-car. On the other hand, the ranks of the motor cyclist are filled from those of the cyclist, and to commend itself to the cyclist the petrol machine must be light In weight, arid consequently light in tyres and in running expenses. For motor-car manufacturers there is no doubt a prosperous future, for the man who can afford to maintain a car can also afford a new one fairly frequently, but .the trade is very sensitive to general trade conditions, coupled with which 'there is the factor that a mistake once made may mean the loss of a .reputation built up at great expense. With sue-

.oessful motor-cycle manufacturing companie« thore is even 'more need for selection, and the future mint lie wibh the big, firms who will supply machines for jail purposes and* be ready to adapt themeelves to changing' fashions. Prices of .machines are Bound to fall when the present craze has rjeen satiefled, -for the demand at present comes from the younger and more athletic section of the community, to whom the luxury of a car has no attractions, while its expense is a bar ; and' it is not reasonable that .a Icrazo of this sort can last. A pttsbimo. which does not entail physical' exercise will' not long oommend itwH Ho the young and vigorous. " I leave it to my readers to sift the wheat from th«f cliaft in thi« scries of allegations. i , The fin* of 1912 model Triumph motor cycles- has been received by Mesere. Sutherland and llankino, the local agtttts. ■ The most outstanding improvement is in the shock-absorbing arrangement on the front wheol. The suspension instead of being in two separate springs, which occasionally broke, ifi now a massive single spring capable of Standing any shock. Tho other improvements »r* in minoi' detail, and the machine may now be reckoned a» abeoiutel'y perfect and fool-proof of ite kind. The same firm will ehortly have. out the 1912 model 8.5.A., a machine ako with a reputation. A work long needed by motorists and' motor-cyclists is the bridging of Abbott's Creak on the Featherston side of the Rimuiakas. This ha« at laet been commenced, and should soon be finished. The design is for wood on concrete foundations, and the structure will be light but solid. It i« 120 feet long. The motor-ear in kinematography is <usually a handy vehicle that spring* up at a moment's notice to carry away the eloping couple, or the villain abducting the heroine, or the burglar and his spoil, or more often «till is .part of the stage properties , of the "comic" picture. One was glad to «cc recently in a looal picture house the motor seriously it work in the film descriptive of the faro- I dub Ford car that climbed the highest mountain in the British Isles (Ben Nevis) last year. There is more value in *uch a picture than half-a-dozen dramagraphs of conventional manufacture. The announcement in yesterday's Post by cable that Franci* Birtles, the wellknown overland cyclist, had beaten his own record from Fremantle to Adelaide was not unexpected. He wa* reported as beating his own previous beet at every etage of the journey. It is a wonderful performance — to push a heavily laden bicycle over nearly 2000 miles (1975, to be precise) in twenty and a-half days. His previous performance was 27 days 15 hours. Birtles left Fremantle on New Year's Day, and, in 1 less than eight days had passed Balladonia, a repeating station on the overland telegraph line, about a thousand miles on his way. Hie machine weighed 112lb#, and his equipment included two copper water tanks, sleeping bag, rifle, and food supplies, and witfc the rider up the total load on the machine was about 280lbs. Now he has got to Adelaide Birtles will shed most of his "ship-of-the-de6erV' equipment and travel light to Sydney. He wants. to get through in another ten days, making the whole transcontinental trip in the month. He h» another 1100 miles to do to Sydney, and he should do it easily in the ten days left. The previous beisb wa» F. White's 36 days 13 Voura 3 minutes for the transcontinental. Under the heading, '' New Application' of Old Idea," Chief T. P. Purcelf,' of the Dublin Fire Department, writes to "Fii 4*4 * , and Water," a fire brigade, paper, i describing a simple coupler by which motor fire engines can, dr&w,' stream pumping engines to the scene of. the fire. , Inspector Hugo, late Superintendent of the Wellington Fire Brigade, points out that he used a similar device -.five years ago in Wellington. I saw the simple bars by which the then superintendent attached the steamer to the motor engine, and the principle is much the same as that described by the Dublin Chief of Fire Brigade. There are, however, distinct improvements in detail in the Dublin device, making it stronger and more effective in praotibal use. '