A MOTORING CAUSERIE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18711, 17 May 1924, Page 30 (Supplement)

A MOTORING CAUSERIE.

TBY OCR BEITISS " COBRESPONDENT.J M </. . .-.;•; 1 .- -. i.e. •-■ w- ~.'.'Y ■:-<■■ ■ ■*' . ■ /,-- The Flying English. : In 1923 English 'aviationt lines carriei • ip'TCSS passengers in 857' journeys on th ■:>..* Paris-London ' ' Airway, using only fou t &- machines, while the - French.. \ companie " carried 2255 passengers in 1115 journeys • using 40 machines on the same route. These facts came out in the course o ;. : : a lecture by M. Andre Michelin, compar ' s ;;i ing English and _ French flying.. Th »-.■ British success is' attributed to the Eng r. lishman's businesslike adoption of th aeroplane to the uses of commercial trans ' • r port. : London Traffic Accidents. : "The year 1923 has been a melancholy one_ in -the history of London's stree accidents, the number of which to per sons and property has Increased to th appalling total of 69,813." This state ~ ment was made recently by the chairtnai ; $t th e London -"Safety First" Council Mr. Blam. Private motor-cars are"' th . cause of the majority of the accidents and .next to them come the trade an commercial: motors. :Of the 50,000 vt-hmle ■;? that pass Hyde Park Corner daily, 70 pe . ; cons ' of ; light ; motor-cars. Fo the i ear ' the analysis of accidents re ; >ealed that' these were caused as follows —By tramways, 4539; omnibuses, 6875 commercial and- private cars, 35,822 t?/! C n?~^ c^eE ' 4640; horse-drawn vehicles . 8494; bicycles, 9243. ■:• V' ■ : ; England in 1924. > Everything points to this being are g cord year for road travel .in the Ok Country. Apart from the phenomena •,& increase in the number of- private .-• car; ■ in circulation— are at least 25 pel cent, -more ; registered today than then • were , last spring—the Empire Exhibiticr ■-S promises to., attract great numbers o • r overseas visitors, the majority of whon ' ."will - contribute their quota to touring. T r ;; addition, the flood of Americans has be r. gun, and the Cunard Company has made g. special arrangements with the Automobile >| Association to undertake the customs' v. clearance of their clients' ' cars at British ' ports. . ■ One must not be a pessimist -to* assert that tha main roads out of London will be far from ideal motoring routes this summer owing to overcrowding. This, however,'need not deter the visitor. There are 179,000 miles _of • roads in Great Britain, which for the most part are ideal fiom the tourists* point -of view, both- as regards surface and . also v sign-posting. *wv t they be,' seeing* that nearly £1,000,000 is spent.on them each week." - London Transport Strike. *•- •"/: The obsolescentAtramcar" has had a lot of hard things said "about,'- it ""during'< the past few weeks, • for - it was the not. entirely innocent cause of the".cessation -of the < whole of the public transport services -—with the exception 'iof:; the "pirate" buses. The tram men. wanted more money, the' trams could not - possibly pay it,' and so the employees struck and, with them, the- busmen _in sympathy. ■• '- For ten days city workers tramped; to business and, hoping that the dispute would soon be a settled, were aghast' to learn that r the electric tube and railway staffs proposed to * come out" unless the tram men's claims were promptly met. , That was a - situation from which there seemed no va JE:?. ut Happily , such was found by the expedient of rushing a bill into Parliament for the purpose of establishing . a Central London authority to control the routes and services to be run by public, vehicles in the streets. How this could solve the, difficulty may be rather obscure to the reader. Actually, the expiration ;is simple. At- present anyone ; ■who runs a bus conforming to the standard police specification mav obtain a license to, ply for : hire on "any street. ; Tha,t has led to the "institution of a num-.. , heKpf free-lance services—commonly , and unfairly known as ' 'pirates': '--tti.i ply along the . routes of the London General Omnibus Company: and of its'allied tram services. The "General" buses! can stand he competition; the trams. cannot. Hence they cannot pay . the recent wage" demand. Now . the new bill will enable the - central authority to order , the, "pirates" off the; : cr. •tram routes; the trams" will earn more revenue and everyone—except' the "pir- ' ates'—will be;.happy. At: .least, -everyone ; ™ a y be . happy if tie bill 'passes.' Actually, It is going to receive a good •r. deal of opposition because;<ifc will 'override- the 100 local authorities, - who," at ; present, 'are supreme in their own portion of the, area embraced, by the bill/ Seventeen years ago this very idea was mooted, but had to be dropped on account of local: body hostility.; To-day it .is -.beinfj rushed through, bat it will still.have to Jan.; the gauntlet of criticism; from 7 ' both ■* the - ; councils and : those . public men' ' who • . detect the' obvious fact that, it" is calculi ■ • ated to enthrone as monopolists theVcom-' ' ■ S J ' n ® that owns the tubes, buses ahdlmany. of the tram; companies. : As to; this- feAr ' we can only "wait arid see." - ' ' • ; v e The framework of the bill is "the repose - ®f autocratic power in the hands; of -the Minister of Transport and thet creation pf a rather funis Advisory Committee, n committee is to be representative of .... all conflicting interests and is almost sure tO .-be *? such static equilibrium that it ."Will lack dynamic force. cii'i. -