CYCLING & MOTOR NOTES

Otago Witness, Issue 3509, 14 June 1921, Page 42

CYCLING & MOTOR NOTES

By

DEMON.

The expenditure on roads in England for the financial year 1913-14- was £19,C00,0C0; in 1919-20, £33,409,000. In 1920-21 it is estimated tnat some £45,000,000 will be spent in that direction. 'towards ihe latter sum it is anticipated that motorists will contribute, in special taxes, about £8,500,000. The recent Public Schools Boat Race, decided on the Barwon, near Geelong, attracted one of the largest gatherings of motor cars yet seen in Victoria. All told, it was estimated that fully 2000 motor vehicles journeyed to Geelong to witness the event, and of this number 1005 were counted on the Saturday by Road Board officials as having made the outward trip between Melbourne and Geelong. After the race, and on the same day, 998 motors journeyed back to Melbourne. The Canterbury Petroleum Prospecting Company (Ltd.) has succeeded in drilling- through the sand pump which was dropped in the well at Chertsey, states the Ashburton Guardian. The sand pump was dropped on March 23, 1920, and after unsuccessful attempts at its recovery it was decided to cut it up in the well. This work has been going on since June 10, 1920. The progress has been very slow, sometimes only about lin a day. The pump, which had a length of 16ft, with a diameter ot about 3in, lias taken nearly 12 months to cut up, and has tried the patience of workmen and shareholders. The indications of gas and oil are satisfactory, and work will tie resumed with encouragement. The Government subsidy of £IOOO has materially assisted. Danger caused by hedges and trees on corners is the subject of a letter from the South Island Motor Union now under consideration by the By-laws Committee of the City Council. The letter states that if is recognised that trimming trees ana hedges at corners, while it makes for greater safety to traffic, tends to cause a thicker and faster growth. Moreover, local bodies can not be expected to keep on notifying occupiers to trim their hedges every time the operation is needed. "The motor lias eo'fne to stay as the main method of transport, and my council considers that the only real way out of the difficulty is to cause the growths to be entirely removed at the corners and for dead fences to be erected instead. It is suggested that there should be a limit to the height, say 4-ft for close dead fences, at such corners as the local bodies consider dangerous. My council would like to have an expression of your council's opinion in regard to the above suggestion, and in the meantime would respectfully urge your council to exercise its present powers under section 13 of the Public Works Amendment Act.” CYCLING. SYDNEY, June 10. Mr E. S. Marks, secretary of the Athletic Union of Australia and New Zealand, has written to South Africa to the effect that the proposed visit- of cyclists will be acceptable to New South Wales, Victoria, and Queensland, but not to South Australia or New Zealand, on account of there being no suitable tracks. It is stated that the athletes will be received in Australia at the end of this year, at the time of the Australian championships, and in New Zealand from the middle of January to the middle of February. BROOKLANQS TRACK. Two of -the motor car races at Brooklands. We;,bridge, on March 28 were won by Count Zborowski, in his roaring 600 bp. giant, appropriately named Chitty-Bang-Bang. at a speed of just over 100 miles an hour. Much interest was taken by the large crowd in this spaoe-devourer with its huge six-cylinder Maybach engine, as designed for Zeppelins, mounted on a. Mercedes chassis. The highest, pace at which a race was won was the 105 miles on homy at, which Andre Boillot, on Mr Coatale.n s six-cylinder Sunbeam, secured the eight and a-half miles handican from scratch. But. in the lightning handicap over the same distance, which Count Zborowski’s Mercedes won at 89 miles on hour, Mr (loatalen’x 12-cylinder Sunbeam, driven by K. Lee Guinness, after some delay at the start, gathered sliced at a tremendous rate and covered one lap (about two and threequarter miles) at 120 miles an hour, to finish second. It was a very spectacular performance.

ACROSS AUSTRALIA. After the disastrous ending to Francis Bit-ties’ transcontinental motor car trip, taken with a view of looking out a route for the suggested north-south railway line this great cycling overlander will probably wish that he had adhered to his original intention and made the trip by the aid of his sturdy “Universal” bicycle. From the meagre details to hand the Hudson car by some means evidently capsized, and the petrol supply, catching fire, speedily destroyed the outfit. Birtles himself was burned, but his injuries were not so severe as those of his companion, Mr R. Fay. Despite the fact that Birtles lias, by the aid of his bicycle and motor car, cris-crossed Australia in about every conceivable direction, aggregating over 250,000 miles in all, this is the first serious mishap that he has struck in all his travels in and around this continent. As regards the north-south transcontinental route, Birtles’ experience calls to mind the trouble that Messrs H. Dutton and M. Aunger had in their pioneer efforts to cross from Adelaide to Port Darwin in a car. In 1907 these two South Australian motorists set out on a Talbot for the north, and, after reaching Tennants Creek (1379 miles from Adelaide) they could get no further forward, and had to abandon their car, owing to the rainy season having set in. The following year they set out with another Talbot, and this time succeeded in getting both cars through to their destination. The time taken for the 2066 miles trip from Adelaide to Port Darwin was 52 days. CARE OF THE TOOL KIT. Many motorists and drivers are particularly careless as regards the care of thentool kit and spares. L'nless a motorist or his chauffeur is of particularly careful disposition, tools and accessories are usually carried in an arbitrarily selected position, left there, forgotten, until a roadside emergency calis for their use. Very often when touls are suddenly required they are found to be rusty, and otherwise in a condition which renders them unlit for use; so that in these circumstances a breakdown, or even an unimportant roadside stop, assumes aggravating proportions. The mail who throws his tools anyhow into a box on the road board deserves trouble on the road when such tools are required—and lie generally gets trouble. Caro, even to the extent of fastidiousness, is well repaid with regard to tools, and if boxes or other receptacles set aside for their accommodation are not weather-proof a little outlay is well justified to correct matters. TRAFFIC CONTROL. Interesting views on traffic control problems were expressed in an interview by Air L. S. Drake, the Wellington City Corporation’s chief motor inspector, wiio has had driving experience in London and in many other parts of the world. Mr Drake gave a flat contradiction of the opinion that the majority of accidents were caused in main streets by the pace cars travelled at, and offered as proof instances where accidents liad occurred. when the car concerned had been going at quite a moderate speed. With an exception hero and there, lie said, l-he rate at which the motor traffic proceeded was not at all excessive. “The ears here do not travel so fast as they are allowed to do in London,” said Air Drake. “I have driven there, and I know what I am talking about. Why, if it were any slower it would mean that they would never get through. They are allowed to drive at twenty miles an hour in London, even in Piccadilly and the Strand. Indeed, in certain circumstances one has to drive pretty smartly to keep out of harm’s way. Of course, twenty miles an hour is not averaged, by a long way. One is held up at street intersections, but the traffic at times in the London streets would never be able to extricate itself if a fair pace were not maintained. It is the same in Sydney. The traffic is held up there, but as soon as the constable on point duty gives the word the motors ‘scoot for if.’ ” A FREAK EY-LAW. The Newmarket Borough Council (Auckland) has adopted a by-law that puts other “freak” rules in the shade. It reads: “Drivers shall bring their vehicles to a stop when the tramcars stop or are about to stop to take on or let off passengers, and shall remain standing until the tramcar has started. Drivers shall nol sound their horns when stopping, as it confuses'pedestrians.”

Commenting on the regulation, a northern magistrate said: “It is an absurd proposition to compel every vehicle in the borough to stop, no matter vhere it is, whenever a tramcar steps to take on or discharge passengers.” DISC WHEELS. Popular conceptions of an up-to-date car demand that disc- wheels should he fitted, and in endeavouring to modernise an early model of car discs are not infrequently adapted to standard artillery wheels. Whether an improved appearance is actually effected or not depends upon Iho individual tastes of tlie person concerned, but a certain practical objection to the alteration should not be overlooked after the conversion has been made. Wooden wheels are liable to become creaky if kept permanently dry, and the effect of most kinds of auxiliary discs is to exclude all moisture, with the result that in the course of time die spokes loosen in the felloes as well a-s shrink away from the hub. The difficulty can be overcome quite easily if the discs are removed once or twice a month whilst the car is being washed, so that the wood may swell again, and the hint may bo remembered by drivers who hear unaccountable squeaks, which are often due to the undue dryness of the protected wooden wheels.