NOTES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20076, 13 October 1928, Page 10 (Supplement)

NOTES.

There aro 28 associations affiliated to the New Zealand Motor Trade Association. A public company, Catseyo Limited, has been formed in London to manufacture patent spectacles for which anti-dazzle qualities are claimed. Tho Main Highways Board and tho Railway Department have prepared a programme for the elimination of seven railway crossings during tho present year. During tho Ulster Tourist Trophy race hold in August, a farmer who owned a convenient property collected £175 from motorists parking at points of vantage. Tho North Island Motor Union represents soven automobile associations or clubs. There aro eleven organisations affiliated with the South Island Union. Tho experimental half-mile section of tho Napier-Taupo road which was treated with asphaltic oil has satisfied exports, and tho Main Highways Board proposes to carry out several miles of similar work on pumico roads. Commercial vehiclo operators in Great Britnin are very concerned at the burden of tho 4d petrol tax. An amendment proposing a reduction to Id was unsuccessful, Mr. Winston Churchill remarking that it would involve a loss of revenue of £8,750.000 »this year.

In America tho individual name is favoured by 76 per cent, of car producers. No fewer than 35 out of 46 worldfamous makes bear tlio names of persons, many of whom arc practically unknown to-day as individuals, and had, in any case, only a passing local repute. Free wheel clutch devices have been fitted to 14 light cars recently suppliod to !' o London Metropolitan Police. It is claimed that free-wheeling saves from 15 to 20 por cent, in petrol. The cost of equipping each car is about £ls. Several British manufacturers are offering the dcvico ns an extra. The A.A.A. is anxious to find a luminous sign which will give satisfaction on the intersection of the Great .South Road and Manukau Road. Several typos havo been tested but the council has not yet been satisfied. A sign which is conspicuous at night is of great assistance to strangers on this intersection, but types which are satisfactory in other places have not suited the lighting at this point. SPEED LIMITS.

A number of local restriction speed limit signs are making their appearance on the highways. The Huntly Town Board has posted the stretch of tho Great South Road within its jurisdiction. The Mount Albert Borough Council has also placed local restriction signs on tho Now North Road. Tho Waipa County Council has notified tho Minister of Public Works of intention to apply special restrictions in its area. * It seems that this body wants to make lavish use of its authority to make special restrictions. This tendency should be resisted by tho automobile associations.

There aro four national speed limits and on county roads a maximum of 35 m.p.h. is permitted. Tho regulations allow special restrictions where obvious danger points exist but it is obviously not tho intention that this power should bo used wholesale. Tho attempt to standardise ' four national limits will become a farce unless applications for local restrictions aro very closely scrutinised. The old idea that danger is always proportional to speed seems to cling in the minds of some local body officials. If too much latitude is allowed, local restrictions will become as numerous as the old speed limit by-laws and there will be a return to the old confusion.

Traffic control without speed limits has proved very effective in several parts of the world. British motorists who visited Ulster for tho tourist trophy races in August were delighted to find speed limits were not in force. At tho official banquet on tho evo of tho T.T., Sir Dawson Bates, Minister for Home Affairs, invited those present to do 50, 60, or even 70 m.p.h. on tho country roads, but he warned them that they would not be permitted to drivo dangerously. TRAP FOB THIEVES. The London Metropolitan police recently witnessed a demonstration of a bandit trap. The device consists of spikes on a telescopic base. If a motor thief is reported on certain roads police can be stationed in advance of the spiked mats. Law-abiding motorists naturally heed the signal to stop but any driver rushing past has no chance of successfully passing the spiked device. Tests showed that a car driven over the spikes at 40 m.p.h., had every tyro flat before 50 yards were covered. Thoro was an averago of four punctures in each tyre. Another dcvico has been exhibited by Admiral Royds, acting-commissioner of police. This consists of a steel wire apparatus which becomes entangled with the whcols and brakes of any vehicle passing over it. Tho steel wires possess extreme strength and the steering gear generally becomes involved in the tangle and tho vehicle skids, and gets out of control. Neither of the devices is such that every constable could carry one in his pocket to cast across tho road at call, but the idea is to keep tho gear handy near main roads; the spiked mats can bo laid across a highway in a fow seconds.