MOTORING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15504, 10 January 1914, Page 11

MOTORING.

NOTES AND COMMENTS. A general meeting of the Auckland Automobile Association will be held next Wednesday evening, at which arrangements will be made for the resumption of the monthly runs. Mr. R. A. Abbott, of Auckland, returned on Wednesday from a tour of the Waikato districts. Mr. W. S. Downing will take delivery shortly of a 1914 model Hupmobile car. This car is fitted with electric starting and lighting apparatus. This makes the third Hupmobile car brought by Mr. Downing, who buys a new car every year. Mr. Richardson, of Papakura, will also take delivery of a similar car. Mr. C. Norgrove, of Grey Lynn, has placed an order for a 1914 electric starting Overland. The new Overland car is said to be one of the best built machines, and yet to cost the least money. It is fitted with Gray and Davies electric starting and lighting gear, with longer wheel base, which permits a large tonneau and greater seating capacity, and with full floating rear axle. It has all the good points found in the highest-priced cars. The Hupmobile and Overland cars are in good demand. The first shipment of this season's models is at hand, and will be landed in six or seven days. The firm handling these cars find great difficulty in obtaining sufficient to meet the demand. The Mayor of Auckland (Mr. C. J. Parr) is a firm believer in motor-driven conveyances, for during the holidays two types have been used by him. He had an enjoyable week's cruise in his motorlaunch, on the completion of which, accompanied by Mrs. Parr, he left by motor-car for Rotorua. He is expected to return to Auckland to-day. The Rev. Father Furlong, of Devonport, has placed an order for a 1914 model Hupmobile runabout. A B.S.A. oar has been purchased by Messrs. Pullun and Armitage z and will be put on the stand for hire purposes. The Mamaku Hill road is reported by returning motorists to be quite dry through the bush. The surface of the road is very rough. Mr. T. Grainger, of Epsom, has been away during the holidays, touring the province in his Buick car. Mr. G. D. Thornton, of Auckland, has purchased a Wall parcel carrying car. He will use it for general purposes, and may eventually enter into direct competitions with expressmen owning horse-drawn, vehicles.

A number of trips to Titirangi have been made by tho new char-a-banc. The run is a delightful one, and time is given to ascend Mount Atkinson, from which extensive panoramic views of Auckland and Manukau can be obtained. The trip occupies the beat part of an afternoon. Air. Boyd, of Pukekohe. has taken delivery of a two-seater Buick car. The much-talked-of new road between Te Aroha and Paeroa is now open for motor traffic. This cuts out the bad piece of road known as the Te Aroha Gorge Road, which was always a dread to motorists. A good level highway now connects the townships, and the time occupied in the run is only half-an-hour compared with the one hour and a-half trip on the old road took. Mr. G. Brown, of Tauranga, left for home yesterday in his new Buick touring car. The 12 Maori boys who arrived in Auckland on Saturday afternoon, after walking a distance of 323 miles to the Exhibition, were shown shortly after arrival how a motor-car can annihilate space. Mr. G. Henning, who was present at the flower carnival in the Domain, gave the boys a run in his 26 horse-power Daimler. After a speed run round the track on the Domain, he took them for a trip out as far as Potter's Paddock and back. He had the 12 boys in one car. After 19 days of walking, the speed at which the car travelled was enjoyed by the boys. After all, speed is comparative. The Maori boys were accompanied over the last four miles of their journey by the Takapuna Drum and Fife Band, the members of which delayed the arrival of the long-dis-tance walkers. Impeded by their instruments, and unused to marching on hot days the Takapuna boys could not travel at the pace the Maoris were accustomed to. On the last day the Te Kao boy* did 21 miles in seven hours. Mr.. S. Allen, of Morrinsville, left for home on Thursday in his recently-pur-chased two-seater Buick car. One of the prettiest drives in the province, that between Te Aroha and Coromandel, can now be made in comfort. The new road from Te Aroha to Paeroa has removed the great objection to the tour, and when the route is better known it is anticipated many motorists will travel this way. A few years ago, when motor-cars were looked upon as luxuries, and the trade in petroleum spirits was consequently very small, a high rate of freight was decided upon by the railways and shipping companies. To-day. these spirits are a necessity in practically every industry, and the consumption is enormous. In view of these facts, it is felt that the time is opportune for considerable reduction in the cost of freightage, in any case, it should be no higher than that on kerosene or lubricating oils, and with this end in view the Vacuum Oil Company, Proprietary, Ltd., have prepared a petition, which may now be signed by all interested. United action is essential for the success of this movement, and no user of petroleum spirits should fail to sign the petition.

Motor-cars to the number of 100,000 are running in France. A revenue of

£3.600,000 is paid to the Government in direct and indirect taxes on these vehicles. Those who have read, or listened to, Mr. George Bernard Shaw's play, " John Bull's Other Island,'' will remember a certain episode in which one of the leading characters relates that he has been taking " the gintleman that pays the rint" for a drive. In other words, seeking to ingratiate himself in the small Irish town in which the scene is laid, he took a pig for a ride in his car. His (no doubt) heroic self-sacrifice, however, merely creates laughter on the part of his audience, both on and off the stage. It would certainly appear a somewhat absurd and unnecessary thing to do. Perhaps in real life it has never happened—until one day in last November. At a sale at Godalming, Surrey, there were among the " lots " two live pigs. They fetched 465. and were taken away by their purchaser, a lady motorist, in her car. Thus has the dramatist been improved upon.

A Motor-drivers' Parliamentary League was formed in England about three months ago to represent the interests of professional drivers in connection with all political matters affecting their welfare, and to endeavour to obtain an alteration in several clauses of the Motor-car Act. At the first meeting the chairman said the first operations of the league would be directed against the unjust endorsement of chauffeurs' licenses. Drivers were not infrequently penalised for offences which they could not possibly have avoided. Mr Joynson-Hicks, M.P., wrote:— "I have always regarded the perpetual endorsement of the chauffeur's license as a monstrous injustice and a double or treble punishment for an offence already punished in the Police Court." Mr. Marshall Hall M.P., urged that, although the demand for the abolition of the perpetual endorsement of licenses was somewhat sweeping the league should at least endeavour to secure the abolition of endorsement for trivial technical breaches of the law. This should be followed by an endeavour to arrange that all endorsements should automatically expire at the end of 12 months or at all events to get the law altered so as to give the convicting Bench discretionary power to limit the period of endorsement to 12 months. These views were agreed with unanimously by the meeting. \