MOTORING NOTES

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLV, Issue 168, 19 June 1925, Page 11

MOTORING NOTES

Something novel in the way of motorcycle outings will be held by the Auckland Sports Motor Cycle Club on June 21. The Herald says the fixture will take the form of a number of tests, none of which will bo known to Competitors until they assemble at tho starting post. The first prize is £5 and a trophy for second place. The entrance fee is 3s. Tho run will bo called the “Sports’ Scramble.”

The South Island Motor Union is urging the Highways Board to make an official tour of the South Island. New Zealand has nearly 100,000 motor vehicles and about 110,000 telephones. Inglewood County completed about throe miles of bitumen roud during tho past season. Owing to the local stone being inferior, a totul of 3260 cubic yards of stone hnd to be obtained from Rangitikei and Levin. The membership of the South Island Motor Union, as disclosed by the annual report, is now 7250, as compared with 5500 last year. Doughboy Bay, on tho rugged west coast of Stewart Island, is a sort of catchment area for the' flotsam and jetsam btougfit by the warm current from the Californian coast. Recently (says an exchange) two young men, Messrs U. and S. Leask, walked over the rugged hills to Doughboy in search of curiosities and found cast up on tho beach a complete spare wheel and tyre from a motor truck. The tyre Was quite new and tho tube fully blown up, which had caused it to float from no one knows where. The mile and a half of the Great South Road from Auckland through Mount Wellington road district is to _be laid down in concrete. Tho toad board called for tenders, but as the lowest was £2642 above the engineer’s estimate of £16,422, tho board has decided to do the work itself. The Highways Board is subsidising the work to the extent of £BOll. USEFUL CARBURETTER HINTS. When tuning a new carburretter to suit an engine ono of the best, methods of ascertaining the quality of tho mixture (according to the Motor) is to fit a now set of plugs and, after the engine has been run on tho carburetter for somo time, to removo the plugs and note whether they are clean (or dirty. If the distribution is bad some plugs will be found clean and some dirty, but if tho mixture is at fault they will be all more or less dirty. The distribution cannot be altered with effecting changes in tho design of inlet pipe or throttle. Incidentally a throttle, the axis of which lies parallel witli the crankshaft, is to be preferred to ono which is set at right angles to it. It sometimes happens that a new needle does not fit tho face of the valve accurately enough to prevent flooding. An expert, however, can very quickly bed tho needle in by tapping its end gently with a spanner and rotating it slightly on its seat after two or three taps. The tightness of tho face between the needle and its scat ran be ascertained by blowing and then noting whether the tongue is held against the petrol pipe orifice at the bottom of the float chamber by the vacuum. NEW ZEALAND’S MOTOR-CARS. SOME SURPRISING FIGURES, Keeping the tally of tho Dominion's motor vehicles is no light task, and the Post Office lias quite a largo staff on the work (says the Dominion). During April, for instance, somewhere about 1400 new passenger cars went on the roads for the first time, with trucks and i*otor-cycles as well, and in addition to completing tho main register the Post Office has to deal with both these new registrations and transfers o£ old vehicles, averaging 1500 month. If tho April figures were maintained throughout the year it would mean an annual increase in our motor traffic of about 18,000 new vehicles. Tho fact that the transfers of old vehicles are about equal to tile purchases ,of new ones shows the extent of the used car problem in motor salesmanship. Where the money is coming from is tho amazing thing. The income tax figures show that 92,106 incomes were assessed in 1922-23, but of these only 38,571 were over £3OO, the remaining 53,535 being either below that figure or having nio taxable balanco after deductions hud been made. Only about 3000 of the Dominion’s 50,000 or so farmers in occupation of fifty acres or moro are shown as income taxpayers, but even if the wlnole of the remainder are added on to the 38,571 persons shown as in enjoyment of incomes, above £3OO we only get a total of about 90,000, whereas the total registration of motor vehicles of all descriptions is already at tlie 110,000 mark.

REPRESENTATIONS TO MINISTER.

(Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, June 18. Representatives of the motor interests and local bodies throughout the Dominion waited on the Hon. R. F. Bollard to-day regarding tiie present registration system. Mr Bollard submitted four main questions tor their consideration: (1) Are annual number plates to be continued ? (2) Are tho plates to have local letters? (3) What is the most suitable colour to make them easily identified? (4) Is it feasible that a plate can be permanent and have some addition as to the year, to indicate that the requirements of the Act hud been fulfilled ? Mr 11. L. Tapley, Mayor of Dunedin, said tho interests he represented disapproved of tho colour and lettering of the present plates. They maintained that the colour should bo black, with white figuring. They wore of opinion that a permanent plate was better and that motorists should not bo put to tho yearly expense of buying new plates. Tho cost of renewals would be about £IO,OOO yearly, which was an economic loss. Having a permanent number plate obviated the necessity for having a license displayed on the windscreen. The plate should be made locally and not imported, j Mr G. Mocnamara, first assistant secretary to the Post and 'Telegraph Department, strongly defended the present system of registration, which wns giving sat- ! isfoction and operating economically. Ho did not favour a green plate, but Jins wus forced on tho department as no other colour was available at the time, lie do nied obtaining a plate from America without regard to local industry.- He was absolutely opposed to a permanent plate. Tho annual system was the only practicable one and an excellent one for tracing cars. Mr intimated that he had evolved a scheme which he proposed to ask tho Minister to put into effect, whereby the showing of paper licenses could bo avoided. He hoped next year that all motorists would have to do would bo to fill in a form showing name, address and present number, and would receive immediately, on the payment of a fee, a new number plate. Ho would leave it to Mr Bollard to say whether tho present system was to be scrapped. There were 17,000,000 cars in America and surely tho same sehemo as applied there would work in a little country like New Zealand. Mr Bollard said the matter would be very closely considered by the department, which was out to do its best for all concerned.