RANDOM NOTES

Hawera Star, Volume LI, 20 June 1931, Page 12

RANDOM NOTES

NEWS FROM ALL SOURCES

The memorial tablet of the late Mr. J. B. Dunlop, recently unveiled in Belfast, was made from a solid block of ebonite weighing 12701 b, made in the Maeinlop factory at Liverpool. It is predicted that life-size statues may he made of ebonite or hard rubber in the future, as the material is less destructible than stone and does not get so dirty.

According to a recent report from Paris, an important contract has been arranged between a French concern and the Soviet Government for the exclusive importation into France of 300,000 tons of Russian petrol yearly, while the French company is said to be in negotiation with the Soviet l‘orj the importation of Russian crude oil to be refined in France. An influx of! Russian fuel into South Africa is also' on the tapis. , A very interesting high-speed 16ton lorry has just been produced in America. It is a six-wheeler with two engines, each driving one of the rear axles independently of the other. Novel features include hydraulic-power steering, hydraulically-operated clutches, compressed air gear change, and servo brakes. The accelerator is the only control which works directly. When running light only one engine is in action. A scheme to reduce by half the tax on motor-cars used by farmers, doctors, lawyers and other professional men, where the vehicles are used in the course of their work, is being considered by the French Chamber. According to a report given in a London paper recently, Mr. Henry Ford has expressed astonishment at a “very ugly” baby (car) which America has produced to sell at £4O. . In dealing with skidding accidents, there is always a tendency to seek for defects in the vehicle and tyres and to ignore or minimise road surfaces. Ims should not be allowed to prevail without protest. The number of motor vehicles in use in the United States during 1930 was only six per cent, m advance of iJZ.f. This is the smallest increase on record. A 30-vear-old Benz car, which at one time cai-eered along English roads at 20 miles an hour, left Plymouth iecently for Brooklands. But it is not to break records on the racing trade. It; has been bought by a member of the Brooklands Aero Club, who its owner Dr. F. H. Pears©, of Plymouth, ' £35 for it when he proposed to bury jit rather than pay rates on a shed | which housed it. f The profits of Rolls-Royce, Ltd-, foi the 12 months ended December 31, were £147,170 16s lOd The last nccounts were for a period of 14 months. The production ot motor-cais in Dei many last year was 22 per cent, less than in 1020.