The Motor World

NZ Truth, Issue 685, 27 July 1918, Page 8

The Motor World

"':■'■ CBy "CranlE.") The question of the home production of cars is now being actively discussed m India. It is believed that capital, labor, and plant could be obtained if the movement took practical shape. At present India is entirely- dependent on Imported cars, of which a good number are American. Deliveries of after-war production is bound to bo slow, and it is expected that- home-made cars would find a ready market. • The fact that another Oriental nation (Japan) has made a good beginning with car production is no doubt influencing the trend of opinion m India. ■.••#• « « A novel and Ingenious form of swindle was at one period carried out m America by two confederate sharpers. Sharper No. 1 rode through the country on a first-class machine; when a suitable town or village was reached, he gave out that he was hard up, and must sell his bicycle. He parted with it for a small sum, and left the town. A few days later Sharper No. 2 turns up, apparently on the lookout for a machine that had been stolen from him. He discovers the bicycle sold by No. 1, claims it as bis property, proves the claim conclusively, and goes off to share the spoil with his comrade, preparatqry to a repetition of the performance at the next town. • # c An American motor goggle manufacturer is marketing glasses, which are said to provide a remedy against the dazzling headlight nuisance. The left hand portion of each lens is colored or shaded to a point reaching almost to the pupil of the eye, but not interfering with the vision when the wearer of the goggles erases directly ahead, holding the head m its usual position. When a car with undimmed headlights approaches, the owner of the protecting Roggles has only to turn his head very slightly, about a fraction, of an inch to the right, and the rays of. light from the oncoming vehicle will pass through the shaded portion of the lenses. In substance, the view of the road ah.cad is split m" two lengthwise, with the portion directly m front well Illuminated by the headlights of the, car driven by the wearer of the safe goggles, and the other half shaded for him by tho dark section of h!a eyepieces. A spring In the goggles adjusts them to a face whose pupilary distance may be above or below normal. « # • The first public indication of the future policy of the French motor Industry have been Issued m a report on the situation of the automobile industry after the war. The French motor manufacturers have petitioned the Ministry of Commerce to impose an Import duty of 70 per cent, on the value of all motor vehicles brought into France during the first 12 months following the declaration of peace. The duty to be reduced to 40 per cent, for the pecond year after the war, and for the third and following years to be from 25 to 30 per cent., according to the type of car. The report states that the French makers had all turned over their plants xo munition aviation motor work, and that from 1916 the factories had been deleted of both cars and stocks with which to make cars. Thus unless some protection is given -it would bo impossible to compete with other nations having stocks en hand or having- factories m a position to begin construction without delay. The. present French import duties are based on weight, being roundly equivalent to 8 per cent, of the value, ' • if tf Whilst actual figures are not available as regards the totals of motor vehicles m use by the British on the French Front, it can' be judged that they must be something enormous, by the fact that motor lorries have increased by 43 per cent, since November, 1916, motor cars and ambulance by 73 per cent, during the same period, whilst the increasing use of motor cycles is told m a jump of Dl per cent. These figures are exclusive of the replacement of wastage. All told, half a million vehicles have been trans- 1 , ported overseas, mostly to France, the major portion of which would be motors of one sort or another.