THE MOTOR WORLD

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 19 December 1925, Page 15

THE MOTOR WORLD

NOTES. A man charged at Hamilton with driving a motor-cycle without' a driver’s license produced the license papers he received when he registered the machine. The magistrate explained that it was necessary for all motorists to have personal licenses giving them authority lo drive as well as papers showing thattheir vehicle wore licensed. He remarked that it took a long time to educate people regarding the requirements of the Motor Vehicles Act. The annual English motor taxation returns disclose some interesting facts. .There are 579,901 ears, 571,552 motor cycles, 224,287 commercial , motor vehicles, 15,261 motor jiloughsj 1306 motor tractors, 98,833 motor ’buses an i taxis, paying taxes. All told 1,537,340 vehicles are in use in Great Britain and e the total amount paid for licenses is £15,492,083. A surprising feature is that there are nearly as many motor cyclists in Great Britain as there are earists, and the .large proportion of motor commercial vehicles in use.

A prominent, motor manufacturer recently stated that the motor-car is the cheapest article of commerce in the world to-day. Take the motor-car, he said, and consider the amount of skilled labour involved from the draw ing office to the export department, and consider the number of hands it passes through from the raw material to the finished article, then ask yourself if you can name any other commodity upon which so much, highly paid labour is expended and yet costs as little to the buyer as the average motor-car. “The profits on all foodstuffs and household commodities are very much greater than those earned in proportion to outlay* on cost of manufacture by motorear manufacturers.” The subject ~ one that causes some reflection. Think the matter over and see if you can re-' «rall a single article, costing so much ir the various processes through which it pases, that sells at such a low figure to the general public as the modern car The subject is a fascinating one, and well worth investigating by the ordin ary motorist. £1,000,090. MOTOR EXHIBIT’S. SHOW IN JANUARY. The conservative estimate has been made that there will be at least £1,000,000 worth of exhibits at the forthcoming motor show in Sydney, which will be held at the Royal Agricultural Society’s grounds next .Tami-

The response to the invitation of thv. Motor Traders’ Association of. New South Wales to the trade generally to engage space for exhibits was most on fhusiastie, and as a result the assoc::!.' tion was set a difficult task in allotting sufficient space to allow of a really representative exhibition being made. Efforts to secure additional space were not successful, and the association w-.s compelled to restrict the exhibition to the two fine pavilions engaged at the agricultural grounds, which have been divided into 130 different stands. These stands are so arranged that eacn has a frontage to a main avenue for tinpassage of the public, 72,000 square feet of space being available for the show. The plan adopted, together with the elaborate scheme of interior decorations which is being prepared, will give each of the 130 stands excellent publicity. Eight sections of the motor and accessory trade are represented among the exhibitors, who balloted for theii stalls early this week, the proceedings occupying two days. Nearly every prominent firm in the trade has secured space at the exhibition, and firni3 specialising in motor-cars, motor lorries, and commercial vehicles, motorcycles, body-building, tyres, oil and petrol, and accessories, will all bo strongly represented. No fewer than 50 different makes of cars will be exhibited in various forms, ranging from the bare chassis to the luxurious enclosed vehicle. The Motor Traders' Association wisely determined to have equal representation of every branch of the trade in each hall. THE RAMPANT MOTOR ’BUS. As in all other cities of the world, the invention of motor-cars had revolutionised the general system of intercommunication, and had diminished distances, and brought outlying suburbs closer together. Motor ’buses in Eondon surprise the returned colonial by making unexpected deviations from the high road in order to cut across suburbs which, in the old days wore accessible (as between each other), only by cabs. At a time in August (says a London correspondent in the Sydney Morning Herald) when I was living near “Olympia,” in West Kensington, and wished to reach the Swiss Cottage, St. .John’s Wood, I negotiated the trip without any change. The drive to High Street, Kensington, and the frenzied rush up the narrow lane still known as Church Street, were obviously marked out for .noisy tiaffic. The novelty conisted in the gallop through Penibridge Gardens, their leaf-enfolded villas in silent protest at such an insult, the journey through the poverty of Wvstbourno Park, the dive down the sordid- endlessness of intervening

streets, the . expected arrival in Kilburn High Road, the swing round into the ups and downs of Belsize Park, and the ultimate completion in little more than half an hour of an excursion which, 20 years ago, would have taxed the speed of a hausom cab. This drive is typical of the audacity of the modern motor’bus, and has been extended to every part of London. In. imint of fact the Londoner of to-day necessarily knows a great deal more about his vast metropolis tliau did his seniors of the previous generation. As compared with the present inheritors of fast going, we others remained blissfully unaware of how little we knew of it! No doubt everyone united in an appreciate^4 familiarity with Regent and Piccadilly Circuses, Trafalgar Square, the Strand, the Cathedrals, and the city. But the West-Ender pure and simple, regarded a visit to the other side of the Thames as a weird adventure. I realised this personally when leaving at Beckenham (Kent) the house of an old friend, who suggested that I might do'the 10 miles to Victoria Station just as easily on the top of a ’bus. This novel idea gaily assimilated, I actually saw witu the naked eye seven or eight districts referred to in the daily press from infancy, which seemed as remotely foreign in actual fact as Bagdad or Damascus. This seemingly exaggerated way of stating the case will be genially accepted as true by any old-time Londoner who reads it. Street nomenclature as the ’bus rolled ou assured me that I was actually seeing several country villages in turn, familiar only by name, as well as the surging thoc oughfares of Lewisham, Camberwef. Beckham Rye, Lambeth, Vauxliall, and various others, terminating in Pimlico and Victoria Station.

THE MERRY MOTORIST. “I have a friend who rather fancied his new car” (writes a correspondent of a southern paper). “In the country recently he was going along leisurely at about twenty-one miles an hour. He went to. the side of the road on hearing a ‘ toot-toot’ from behind. The overtaking car as it passed hind filled him with amazement. It was the most atrocious-looking car he had ever seen. Where wire was not used to keep it'together string was used. The bonnet was dilapidated and the mudguards battered. There may have been some paint o:i it, but it could not be seen for dried 'mud. ‘ After passing, the car eased up to fifteen miles an hour. Righteously indignant, the other man sounded his horn, and swept by the wreck. Stepping on the juice, he was hitting' up fifty miles an hour, when he heard a. ‘toot-toot’ again. He could hardly believe his senses when the heap of scrap-iron not only passed him, bur left him as if he had been standing He was somewhat mollified when lie learned later that the owner.has played the trick on, many other young motoiists who are inclined to show off the paces of their car. Beneath the wretched-looking bonnet he has installed one of the finest motor engines .•mining .on our roads.”