NOTES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19780, 29 October 1927, Page 10 (Supplement)

NOTES.

Never smoke when you are filling your tank or you may be hoist with your own petrol.

The A. A. A. agent at Kaitaia reports that the northern clay roads are in good condition.

Horse cabs still have their patrons in Edinburgh. A tally taken a few months ago showed that there were 321 motor 'taxicabs. and 62 horse cabs in the city.

A magnetic machine employed on American highways to collect nails and scrap metal averaged as much as 131b. of waste per mile during a trip over an important motor road.

Russia is proving a good market for German trucks and buses. In May exports of German trucks were valued at £603,250. Russia took 88 of the 411 trucks exported in the month.

During August 735 labourers and 16 skilled workmen were employed on road work in the Auckland district by the Public Works Department. In the Whangarei district 447 men were engaged on roads.

The Automobile Association of Great Britain attained a membership of 350,000 in September. It is the largest organisation of motorists in the world and the membership is increasing at the rate of 50,000 a year.

It is now possible to travel from London to Edinburgh by omnibus with only one change. The return fare is £2 7s 6d as compared with the railway fare of £5. The journey occupies nearly twice the time of the fastest trains, but the saving of the fare is said to be diverting some patronage to the road. The omnibuses are luxurious vehicles and stops are limited.

As a result of trials for producer gasdriven lorries held under official observation the French War Department has selected 10 of the 32 competing machines as fulfilling all requirements for practical transport. These makes will be offered to the public as subsidy types. Most of the gas producers selected were charcoal burning designs.

The maintenance of a thoroughfare in the narrow confines behind the Mercer railway station is not a simple matter and the Public Works gang did good work in keeping the road open for heavy traffic to the Waikato on Labour Day. A filling of 12 chains is now in use while the old road level is being brought up alongside the elevated surface. The new filling has been surfaced with metal excavated from the lower road.

The secret of maintaining a gravel road in good Condition is to avoid too much camber. The Main Highways Board's engineers have found that there is a tendency among local authorities to construct gravel roads which have this fault. Excessive crown on some of New Zealand s gravelled highways lias caused traffic to concentrate on the centre of the roadway. The correct cambei for a gravel road is a drop of £m. for every foot of width.

Preference to goods of British manufac, ture in New South Wales is illustrated by figures made available recently, lhese show that in the purchase of motor vehicles for State Government departments during the year ended June 30, 1927, of 17 cars recommended by the Advisory Committee from July to December, 15 were British, while of the 23 lorries and trucks the whole were British. For the second six months, January to June, 1927, all the motor vehicles recommended, comprising 28 cars and 14 iorries, were British.

Local bodies in Auckland might show more energy in preventing the scattering of glass and nails on the roads by builders or gangs engaged in the demolition of old buildings. Wherever a building is under construction on an important thoroughfare nails can be found by the score on the roadway. Workmen appear to throw this rubbish abroad without consideration for rubber tyres. There was a striking example of this carelessness this week in High Street, where an old brick building was demolished. Hundreds of bent nails were left lying in the road at the corner of High Street and Chancery Street. No doubt the scrap metal will be gradually absorbed by passing tyres.

A ROADSIDE REPAIR

A fractured contact breaker spring would baffle most motorists. An Auckland driver who was recently held up in a remote spot by this trouble was lucky enough to have a cheap watch m his pos session. He sacrificed a piece of the mainspring and avoided a long walk to summon what would have proved rather expensive assistance. The contact breaker behaved perfectly for nearly 50 miles before a correct spring was obtained. The only trouble with it was that at high en gine speeds it wis too weak to close the points with sufficient rapidity. Success ful makeshifts have also been made with pieces of rubber wedged in the breaker, and with fragments of piano wire.