The Motor

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 30, 4 August 1923, Page 23

The Motor

BY "AUTOS 1

STATE OF THE ROADS

The winter always finds the weak {spots in the city's thoroughfares,' and some of the main outlets from the city proper are once more in their usual winter state of deep mud. One of the very worst examples is the road out to the eastern suburbs via Constable street and Crawford road. This winter this thoroughfare, which, excepting perhaps Thorndon quay, carries the heaviest traffic in the whole city,' has been in a simply shocking state. Near the crest of the hill by the Fire Brigade Station there

were ruts and waves over a foot deep, and the condition was getting worEe when the council men took in hand the

job of extensive repairs. • These ■ consist in cleaning out the channel of the road

on the side of the tram track—between that and the kerbing—and filling it with fresh material. - This has been changed from that used in former years, which was simply road metal. The present operations of the 'road repairers consist in laying first a bed of destructor clinker and rolling it in, and then covering it with metal. Though this may be an , improvement on metal pure and simple, it cannot be considered as likely to lead tr, a permanent and satisfactory high'•vay. It is really high time that the council considered the case of this road, with a view of settling it on a, permanent basis. It must be enormously costly to have to relay it practically every year, in addition to incidental repairs at. intervals. The question, then, arises as to what should be the material. If the road were

on the level, there could be only one answer, and that would be—bitumen. The experience wit'i this material in Kent and Cambridge terraces seems to have beeo quite satisfactory. Certainly, the motorist can have little to complain about in running up to or down from the Basin Reserve. Wood-blocking, of course, is no longer practical. . The trouble with Constable street and Crawford road is that there is still a considerablj amount of horse-drawn traffic, mostly of the heavy dray type, taking shingle, tand, and road metal into town. In addition, the motor traffic includes much of the heaviest type of vehicle with the heaviest loads. So long as horses continue to use the road, it cannot be laid down in a smooth-surfaced . material like bitumen or tarred macadam —the grade is much too steep for that. By the process of elimination one gets down to what is the oiily feasible type of road construction for a road of this grade carrying heavy traffic, narrow and used by horses. This is the sort of road that has been used for a century or more in the industrial districts of England, where the hills are just as steep and the traffic even heavier. This is the' road paved with granite sets on a concrete foundation. There are hundreds of miles of such roads in Lancashire and th£ West Biding of Yorkshire This is probably the most thickly populated and busiest industrial urea in the, whole world, not even, excepting (he famous Ruhr district of Germany, 'jhe road traffic is simply prodigious, and though the roads were built long before motor traffic was even dreamt of, they have stood up to modem conditions most successfully Costly in the first place, •ney are absolutely permanent, and if repairs are necessary, they can be made quite easily by lifting out the sets and rebeddmg them. It is a case of woodblocking, only the blocks are made of stone instead. The council has already Jiad some experience with these stone sets m edging the tram rails when these were originally laid down, and it might be possible to get sufficient of these sets to pave the whole road. In any case the stone set appears to the writer"to be the • on y remedy for v;hat is an annual scandal to the city authorities. Whether the sets could be moulded out of concrete on the same lines as the council's kerbing and guttering pieces or whether they would have to be brought from Otago or Auckland is a matter for the authorities

. The great problem facing the motor in iSew Zealand is that of adequate roads, and the problem of the roads is the motor, writes Mr. L. Ashoroft Edwards m The Radiator." There is a vast held m this Dominion awaiting the motor, and, given suitable .road-condi-tions, there is probably no country in the world with a higher motor-purchas-ing capacity. Let us glance at the general potentialities of the position. New Zealand is one of the youngest countries, commercially speaking, and its develop* ment has been little short of phenomenal.

With the potentialities to purchase motois the trade to utilise them commercially gorgeous country to tour in, and a splendid climate, who can doubt that an amazing future awaits the motor in *ew Zealand, provided more suitable road conditions can b B obtained. For our population and the extent of the Dpmimon, our roads may be classed as comparatively good, but there is no doubt that they ate far behind modern / requirements.

Things move so rapidly nowadays that -- it does not take long for. the "good" of one decade to .become the-"obso-lete of the next. Our present roads were constructed for horse-drawn vehicles, but the advent of the motor demands the provision of roads totally diflerent to the present specification, and in conformity with modem requirements. ■Ihe action of the wheels of a horse- .• primary effect is of grinding wear on the primary effect os of grinding wear on the road surfaces. Comparatively speakin", the pace of the horse-drawn vehicle is slow and the loads light, and serious damage is, therefore, not sustained by the ordinary well-laid, water-bound macadamised surface. With the motor, the wheel proceed in a series of bounds. .J the wear fajling on the tires and not on ■£) tlje road» but on account of the bounds .Jing action-and the speed at which it rvv r?yels» a motor soon deforms a road ■C*-.-•*■ ls not b. uilt to withstand its acK^hon. In addition, a macadamised road .;y)ryurface rapidly becomes, on account of ..^tne scouring action of. the wheels, that bugbear, a mass of pot-holes. It; U 13-- therefore, quite clear that if gf the motor is to come into its own, cur j-oads from base to surface, will have to f be reconstructed upon lines suited to motor requirements. The total reconstruction of mileage even sufficient to provide main arterial highways fleaviii" out of consideration second "and third cJass roads), means financially a colossal undertaking, and adequate finance, therefore, becomes the all-important lactor. The self-imposed tire tax which has been accepted by the Minister in charge of the suggested Main Highways .bill will provide about 5150 000 at tho • average rate of tire importation. A fui- . tner £150,000 is estimated as necessary to enablo the State to satisfactorily finance a main arterial roading scheme. It stems quite clear that only by the impjsition of an adcquato annual registration fee carl this further sum be provided. Five pounds per motor is the

Minister's suggestion, but on account of the existing tire tax, motorists object -to this additional taxation as excessive.

Their objection does not appear to be well founded, as, in the first place, the the tax, although certainly imposed for road improvement purposes, might quite justly have been levied for the purposes of general revenue, and email objection would probably have been raised. Sec- , ondly, the reduction in wear and tear on I improved roads will probably equal per annum theamount oE the tax suggested. Finally, suitable roads can onjy be provided if the necessary money is forthcoming, and it is better to have the improved roads.sometime during the lifetime of the present-day motorist, rather than to suffer under to-day's condition. 1!, even if it means an extra pound or two per year. Probably; a compromise will be effected at about £3 per annum, and to this no motorist should object. A vexed question is Eoad Control, and the various road authorities are exceedingly jealous of their prerogatives. It seems that the Victorian road system has been a success, and that a somewhat similar system could be adopted iv New Zealand. One of the most satisfactory provisions under the Victorian system is that in the case of each municipality which has benefited from permanent works and maintenance, the proportion of the total amount expended on such works from which it has benefited should be allocated to such municipality haying regard to the benefit it has obtained ] therefrom. '.

This is surely equitable, and' the county councils should accept such a provision as a satisfactory answer to much of their opposition to surrendering some of their administrative powers. One important point to he considered in any scheme of roud construction is how far the authorities who eventually undertake the reconstruction of our roads should be allowed to experiment. It is undeniable that we in New Zealand have had little or no experience in construction of roads on modern lines. Consideration should be civen to the .importation of an acknowledged road expert. In conclusion, I'am of the opinion that as speed and weight are acknowledged factors -which damage our roads, speed should be reasonably regulated in accordance with the class of roads; that heavy commercial motors should have their engines governed and sealed, and that axle loads should be reasonably limited. This latter provision will, in all probability, result in small trucks being employed with trailers attached, a'step, I believe, in-the right direction. The problem of the motor in New Zealand is good roads, and the problem of sood roads is the motor. Let us all unite, private motorist and trade motorist, and by our united efforts assist in a solution of the problem as rapidly as possible.

On the question of "Dimming • Headlights," the South Canterbury Automobile Association writes to the secretary of the South Island Motor Union as follows :—"Recently there was a case in Timaru of a motorist being prosecuted for not dimming in accordance with the regulations of the Timaru Borough Council. There is a great diversity of opinion on this matter, as many serious accidents have occurred owing to motorists dimming and crashing into some obstacle. In view of the number of cyclists who do not carry lights, motorists consider it dangerous to drive without headlights in town.- My committee is, therefore, desirous that this matter should be discussed at the quarterly meeting of the union, and something uniform adopted. Motorists should undoubtedly dim their headlights, and to save "crashing" they should moderate their speed in accordance with the light available.

A new peak in the production history of the automobile industry was reached in May, according to estimates of the National Automobile Chamber of Commerce, New York, based on shipping returns as compiled by its traffic department, the output of passenger cars and trucks reaching a total of 405,000. This total comes in the nature of a surprise to those who had. been Watching the returns during the month. They had been expecting something like 390,----000 or 295,000 at best, a comparatively small increase over April as increases go these days.

The May count is a new record, replacing the 381,745 established in April, and brings the total for the five months of 1923 up to 1,659,341, a monthly average of 531,868, and a daily average of 13,168. For the last 12 months the count is 3,376.214. Compared with May, 1922, there is a difference of 148,----781, the total then being 256,219. For the full year of 1923 the production was 2,406,396.

White House, Washington, is not the chief thing that worries Mr. Henry Ford nowadays; his chief anxiety is the "Baby Diesel" in San Francisco, according to a Canadian commercial visitor who recently visited London. The "Baby' Diesel" is a little engine now being manufactured by the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation at Union Bay, 'Frisco. Mr. Ford is jealous of it because the "Baby Diesel" has solved the problem dearest, perhaps, to his heart and mind—the problem of a motor fuel so cheap that anybody can run a car. The new engine will haul a Ford 50 miles on one gallon Of fuel that costs l|d a gallon. The same stuff'was used in submarines during the war. The visitor also explains Mr. Ford's statement that he would show the world how to bui-n coal twice. The Ford plant at Walke'rville is now, building yet another half-million dollar plant designed after ,i Canadian invention, to distil out of a ton of. coal'as much as 10 gallons of motor fuel. The plant has a_ capacity to treat 400 tons of Coal daily. The fuel being a pure by-product, the coal burns as well after the process as before. The chances seem excellent.