MOTOR NOTES

Greymouth Evening Star, 22 July 1927, Page 10

MOTOR NOTES

FROM NEAR AND FAR. Everybody will admit that our streets are open for improvement. Statistics show that the total of 105 inquests held in Auckland for the year ended March 31, included no fewer than 45 into traffic fatalities. J’s ❖ * One'person out of every twenty in England is a motorist, judging by the number of licenses issued. In America the proportion is one in six. There are 52,592 automobile dealers in America, and 3,743,781 people are directly or indirectly employed in the motor industry. * * * Summoned at a Middlesex Police Court for having an indistinguishable number plate, a man said it was all right when he went out, but bad roads must have jarred the enamel off! # * * Following a campaign in Great Britain against the indiscriminate installation of unsightly petrol pumps, one oil company has announced its intention to paint all pumps green. It is thought that this colour will harmonise with the landscape more readily than red and orange colour schemes.

* * * Following are the totals of car production in the principal American factories for the first quarter of 1927: Chevrolet, 267,393; Ford, 216,900; Hud-son-Essex, 76,000; Willys-Overland, 54,326; Buick, 55,200; Dodge, 50,000; Chrysler, 45,000; Oakland-Pontiac, 34,550; Studebaker, 30,000; Nash, 32,000; Hupmobile, 11,500; Cadillac, 7,547; Packard, 6420; Auburn, 5000; Franklin, 1794; and Velie, 1320. « * * Old newspapers are about one of the best accessories in the world for car owners. When the tyre blows out, the paper can be used as padding, or when the car is stuck in the mud, they can be placed under the tyre to give traction. In cold weather they can be placed before the radiator. They are extremely valuable as a protection from cold by placing a sheet or two round the chest or legs. They prevent scratching when placed on the fenders and running boards. They can be used to clean the glass.

The best advice that can be given to novice and old hand alike is that he should make a point of behaving to others as he would have them behave to him. Put yourself in the other fellow’s place, and imagine your feeling of annoyance at certain actions in which you yourself may from time to time indulge. Remember, for example, that if you are driving up a hill, you strongly object to being forced to slow and change to a lower gear because somebody descending the hill insists upon occupying half —and often more than half —the road. Think how you resent another driver bursting out from a blind side turning and necessitating your rapid and forcible application of the brakes. Again, what do you think of the other driver who pulls up his car on or close to a dangerous blind corner? Remember too, when you hear the horn of a car about to overtake you invariably to signal the driver forward by a wave of the right arm’. Failure to give this “pass” signal is very dangerous, for without it the man behind cannot be sure that you are aware of his presence and that you will not, just as he draws level suddenly pull across his bows to avoid perhaps a pothole or a large stone.

The world’s biggest motor-car race is to be held in September on the world’s biggest island, when cars from all nations will run in competition for 5000 miles around the Australian coast. French, Spanish, Belgian, Italian, Swiss, German, and other makes from the Continent of Europe will compete in one group, with a second group of cars from the Unite States and a group of British motors. A car from each of these three groups is to carry military dispatches over one of twenty sections, into which the long route will be divided. At the end of its section the competing car will hand over these dispatches to anothei’ car from the same group, and so on by relays, until the whole 5000 miles have been covered. There will be much excitement seventy miles from the start, when the cars have to run down the steep bank of the Burdekin River, cross its bed of loose sand, three-quarters of a mile broad, and climb up the other bank. Already the Dunlop Rubber Company, who are organising the race, are arranging to have a brushwood track put down across the river bed, and horse teams may also be allowed to pull the motorists at this point. No fewer than 127 different makes of car may compete, and the contest promises to be the largest ever seen.

, * * AMERICAN INVESTIGATION. During the 25 years since 1902 some 182 firms have engaged in the manufacture of passenger automobiles on a commercial scale. At the beginning of this year only 50 of them remained in business. These figures are taken from two excellent articles recently published in the Harvard Business Review by Mr Ralph C. Epstein of the University of Buffalo, and from additional data furnished by him. . In arriving at these figures only firms that actually conducted manufacturing on a considerable scale are taken into account. Separate companies operated by a single corporation, as in the case of General Motors, are counted as individual units while companies that changed names and management but did not go out of business are considered as being continuing concerns. This brief but eventful history of the rise and fall of firms entering and leaving the industry is illustrated in the diagram. The upper, contiguous line shows the total number of firms that entered the business from 1902 through 1926. Starting with only 12 companies the line continues on an irregular upward course until it reaches 182 at the end of 1926.The additions in the earlier years have been only a few of them. The lower, irregular line shows the number of firms surviving each year. It has been falling rapidly since 1922. The keen competition that prevails in manufacturing industry in general is present in exceptional degree among the manufacturers of automobiles. When the records are brought up to date a few years hence they will probably show that still more firms have dropped out, that others have survived by entering mergers, and that very few new firms have come into the field. No doubt some relatively small companies will continue to succeed by skilled management and by successfully meeting special demands, but the

major part of the great profits of the industry are being earned by a few large companies. * * * FINEST BUSINESS ROMANCE. The automotive industry is the world’s finest business romance. There is nothing comparable to it. Not only has it created an industry of worldwide proportions, providing employment for countless hordes of people, but has rejuvenated many industries that were at a standstill or moving ahead with a laboured inertia. No other industry has had so short, a period of adolescence. And the amazing thing is that although it has penetrated the four corners of the globe it has only “warmed up” for the brilliant industrial marathon ahead. In the business world the automobile has practically revolutionised methods of merchandising. Its flexibility enables the salesman to cover a larger territory and work it more intensively; he spins over the roads, making more calls in a day than he could formerly in a week. One man to-day does the work that formerly required three or four, does it faster and better. This is only one of a thousand ways in which the automobile is transforming business by building a finer efficiency. Its challenge to-day to the business man is “use me or shut up shop.” Its place in the agricultural industry has become tremendously important in the life of the country. The motor truck is being used more and more to transport farm products to market, and at such time as will enable the farmer to command top prices. The automobile provides him with the means of quick communication with the city, and his family have all the advantages of recreations of the city with added joys of an uncrowded environment. While it is impossible to catalogue the new forces that are impinging on the old established business order, it is safe to say that none is so comprehensive as the automobile.