Motor and Cycle

Otago Witness, Issue 3886, 4 September 1928, Page 68

Motor and Cycle

by

DEMON.

The Canadian Britisher, which arrived jit Timaru from Canada, via way ports, brought approximately 100 motor cars for Timaru. The drone of racing motor car engines will not be -heard on the sparkling ironsand of Muriwai Beach any longer (says the Auckland Star), for at. a meeting of the Sports Committee of the Auckland Automobile Association it was decided to hold the next motor race meeting on Mr George Henning’s dirt track speedway at Mangere. It was thought that dirt track racing would be immensely popular in Auckland. At thp meeting of the Otago Motor Club last week the president (Mr A. E. Ansell) said that while in Wellington recently he had discussed with the Public Works Department the question of reflectors on cars. He had told the authorities that he believed it was an absurd regulation, but they had told him that public opinion had asked for it. He had asked them if they had known of any case where an accident had occured through the tail light of a motor car going out, and they had replied that they had not. The executive of the club had decided to bring up a remit at the meeting of the South Island Motor Union asking the Government to withdraw the regulation. If the idea was insisted on it was going to cost the motorists of New Zealand £40,000, and for what? For what he considered an absolute fad on the part of some of the departmental heads.— (“ Hear,, hear.”) In regard to the position of the tail light, it should be at or on the right-hand side, but the Government did not intend to be arbitrary on this matter. The manufacturers, he understood, were to be informed that in future they should arrange for the tail lights to be on the right-hand side. Mr Ansell also referred to the question of third party insurance. He had discussed the matter with Mr Rolleston, Minister of Justice, and he had led him to understand that some Government action would be taken, but that there would be no interference whatever with private businesses. In regard to driving mirrors, it was not necessary that they should be placed on the outside of a car. If, when situated inside the car, they gave a clear view ,pf the traffic behind it would suffice. STOLEN CARS.

The New Zealand Motor Trade Association's system of circularising garages concerning missing cars often secures prompt recoveries. • Nearly 50 notices were sent out last" year. Recently a car was taken from Timaru. The police failed to trace it after two weeks, and the Motor Trade Association was advised. Identification cards were sent out to garages, and three days later a Westport garage reported thae detention of. the ear. At the end of July a car vanished in Dunedin. It was promptly located in Greymouth. With its organisation giving close touch with nearly 1300 garages, the Motor Trade Association can render valuable assistance to the police. . RESULT OF PETROL TAX. With an assurance of an annual income ®f £750,000 a year from petrol taxes, and. about £500,000 from tyre duties and annual license fees, the Main Highways Board has got into its stride, and before the end of 1928, some of the most ambitious reading schemes in the history of. the Dominion will have been launched. By arrangement with local bodies five year programmes are being mapped out, and within this period, probably over £8J)00.000 will be spent -under the board’s direction. The petrol tax of 4d a gallon was not received with much enthusiasm, but the huge fund which it is producing has deprived some local bodies of the only excuse for procrastination (says a northern exchange). Handsome subsidies are available, and roading authorities must realise that they have now an opportunity to lower maintenance costs for the. future by embarking on substantial reconstruction schemes. AUSTRALIAN CHAMPION CYCLIST. Hubert Opperman, Australia’s champion tyclist, ?by his recent performance in finishing third in the six days’ race at the Buffalo Velodrome, Paris, deserves all the. praise given him by the French newspapers. Despite the wretched luck which seems to still pursue him in his races, he has proved to the people of France by his indomitable ability, both in the Tour de France and other events in which he has competed, that he is really a super cyclist. . A tribute to his wonderful ride in the six days’ race is made in L’Auto, the chief French sporting daily newspaper. L’Auto says:—“ Opperman deserved better than his actual place (third). He rode a 'marvellous race. Calm and enigmatic, the Australian rode for 18 hours without a fellow-rider, and he continued ■ the struggle. He even treated himself to.the luxury of catching up laps from the leadplatoon. With a conscientious gait he pedalled away without peace or mercy, an< ; when a well-known journalist explained to him that he was entitled to p rest f° r an hour, ‘ Oppy ’ replied, _They m'ake. a noise and I cannot sleep; I prefer this.’ Eventually he was induced to rest by a kindly trick.” “’ B ,.’ s n °f the first time''that an Australian has competed in a six-days’ race in France. Back in 1913 at Paris A. T. Goullet, a member of the winning team, was an Australian, and, with his

partner, J. Fogler, put up a world’s track record for a six-days’ race, covering a distance of 2775? miles. THE ULSTER T.T. The Ulster Tourist Troplij r race holds on August 18 was won by Kay Don, driving a Lea-Francis. His time for the 410 miles was shr 58min, the speed for the road race thus averaging 694 m.p.h. An Alvis was second and an AustroDaimler third. There were 44 starters, representing Great Britain, America, Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, and Italy. The course circuit was about 13.1 miles, and 30 laps were covered. Don secured the Royal Automobile Club’s trophy and the cash prize of £lOOO. His car was a 1500 c.c. supercharged sports model, and the cars entered ranged from 750 c.c.- to over 5000 c.c. The Alvis entries were front wheel drive supercharged sports models. An exciting incident occurred during the first 20 miles, when a Bugatti, driven by Captain Malcolm Campbell, burst into Hames. K. Don has been putting up some fine performances on road and track lately. In April he established an international 2000 c.c. record on Brooklands track by covering 100 miles at an average of 1134 m.p.h. He also raised the Brooklands lap record to 131? m.p.h. Don also holds the world's 100-inile record for cycle cars under 500 c.c., his average speed being 62? m.p.h. CARBON MONOXIDE. In America a wave of hysteria concerning the danger of poisoning of city dwellers by automobile exhaust gases has been sweeping the country for some months past. Carbon monoxide gas, product of incomplete combustion, which prevents delivery of oxygen to the tissues of the body by combining with the haemoglobin of the blood, has been cited most often as the chief source of danger. The United States Public Health Service has just completed a survey in which 250 samples of air were taken and tested from 14 large cities totalling 19.000,000 population. “ The average of 141 tests made in city streets during peak traffic hours showed a contamination of .8 of one part in 10,000,” says the report. “ Only 24 per cent, of all street samples showed more than one part in 10,000, and in only one place, a covered passageway, was there as much as two parts in 10,000. Samples taken inside buses yielded even lower concentrations.”

A person can breathe an atmosphere containing four parts in 10.000 for several hours with only a resulting headache and some discomfort, while it takes' a concentration as high as three parts in 1000 to produce unconsciousness in 25 to 30 minutes, and even this is not necessarily lata! it the victim is immediately removed to fresh air. From this it can be seen that the carbon monoxide exhausted from automobiles in the city streets presents no real health hazard. Higher concentrations were found in garages, however, by the Public Health ktti™ C \ r ‘f re 1S a defin >te danger in letting a motor run for a short time in a roofed enclosure, and every car owner nOt to ]- et Car 111,1 all d exhaust .its gases in a closed garage longer than is ‘absolutely necessary when driving in or out.

A DANGEROUS PRACTICE. . ?? ,e . .P rac V ce , °t putting big stones behind the wheels of a motor vehicle when stops are made on such places as the Kimutaka and Paekakariki Hills is no doubt an excellent one from the point of vlelv of the safety of one’s own property and the lives of those in his charge, but the practice of .driving off and leaving such obstructions on the road is not conducive to the' safety of others. There is a distinct'danger, and the Public Works Department has taken a note of it (says a northern exchange), and issued a circular letter to the various motor organisations to notify members that the stones must be removed. Motorists leavin< T them on the road are liable to prosecution. . A GREAT INVENTION. It is 40 years ago since John Bovd Dufrlop applied for the patent for the first pneumatic tyre. He had just retired from his veterinary practice in Belfast, the largest one in Ireland, where 12 horseshoers worked for him. While a boy at school in the village of Dreghorn, Ayrshire, his native place, Dunlop observed that a . iar g e wooden roller was easier to lan a smaller one,* because, as it had a larger area of surface bearing on the ground, the pressure on each unit of area was less. For years he thought on the idea of wheels with flexible rims that would flatten out and so increase the. area of contact with the road. It was a complaint from his small son Johnny, then nine years of age, which actually materialised m the first rubber tyres to be filled 11 alr - Ti J ohnny had grumbled about tile difficulty of riding on' thin solid tyres over the uneven stone setts of Belfast’s streets. His father thereupon made two air tubes from sheet rubber l-32in thick, fixed them to a wooden disc with a thin strip of linen, and ,blew them up with a football pump. The tyres were then fitted to a tricycle made by Dunlop from American elm to his own design with specially shaped rims. The whole was completed one night at 10 o'clock, and so eager were both father and son to test the 1 new device that the boy went out for a run in the moonlight and returned triumphant at midnight. When a racing cyclist who was shown the novelty expressed his doubts about it, the inventor challenged him to a race on his thin solid tyrea against the nine-year-old boy on the

home-made tricycle equipped with pneumatics.

It was the first of the unending tale of races to be won on Dunlops. Although John Boyd Dunlop revolutionised cycling and made motor cats possible, he himself could not at the time ride a bicycle; indeed, there is no record that he ever rode one in all his life. NEW ZEALAND BODIES. The New Zealand bodybuilding industry is concerned at the small imports of car chassis, and the factories in the south have been working at very low pressure (says the Auckland Herald). A conference of agents for a British car which is a fairly good customer for local bodywork was held in Wellington last week. The Dominion bodybuilding industry appears to hope for still further protection, but the move will meet with strong opposition. The quality of New Zealand coachwork is well known, and it is widely thought that the industry can only hope for “ de luxe ’’ and special work. Import duties on motor vehicles are very high in New Zealand compared with those imposed in Australia, South Africa, or India, and the bodybuilding industry has apparently made no progress during the last two years, although body duties were increased substantially at the end of August, 1926. Prior to the increase the body tax was a flat rate of £lO for a British or Canadian touring body and £l5 for an American body. The amended duty imposed in 1926 was 10 per cent, in the case of British cars costing up to £2OO. and 15 per cent, in the case of American cars in the same price- class. For cars over this price the tax is 5 per cent, thereafter for British cars, and 7j per cent, for foreign makes. Although termed a “body tax” the duty i s levied on the total wholesale cost of the chassis and body complete in the country of origin.

Following is a comparison of the ordinary tariff and body duties imposed on cars costing £2OO at the factories:— American or Continental—

Total Tax £3O or 15% £4O or 20% In addition to the body tax a British car costing £2OO pays the regular 10 per cent, duty, while the American car pays '35 per cent, as against 25 per cent, before the tariff amendment.- The aggregate result is that an American car costing £2OO at the factory pays £lOO in duties, or

an_increase of £2O in ordinary duty, and £l5 in body tax as compared with the early part of 1926. In the first half of 1926 443 American car chassis were imported into New Zealand. In the first half of 1928 a total of 288 chassis, including only 49 of American origin, were imported. No further argument against the futility of exorbitant duties should be needed.

THE RICHT-HAND RULE. . . AUCKLAND, August 29. I he existing by-law making it compulsory for a motorist to give way to traffic on his right when approaching an intersection was criticised by Mr W. R. M'Kean, S.M., at the Police Court this morning when he was dealing with bylaw traffic cases. “I am not in favour of the right-hand rule, although, I suppose, it does have uie effect of reducing accidents,” said the magistrate. “I think it would be much better if a rule were made to give way to traffic on the left. Then there would be fewer accidents. As it is now, if you place four motor cars at each corner of an intersection not one of them can move until there has been an arrangement for one to go.” REFUNDS GRANTED. WELLINGTON, August 29. Up till August 15, applications for refunds of petrol tax have been made by 6617 persons, and refunds have been authorised to 4928, the sums involved being as follows: —March quarter, £11,348. June quarter £BBBB. Inquiries are still being pursued regarding 440 claims. MOTOR TRADERS’ ASSOCIATION. The annual meeting of the Otago Motor Traders’ Association was held on Wednesday evening, the president (Mr James Black) occupying the chair. In reporting the work of the past year the executive desired to express its gratification at the way in which interest in the. affairs of the association had been maintained. The widening scope of the association to permit of the inclusion of service stations and tyre dealers had been a considerable factor in increasing membership. The total membership was 43. The question of setting up an Apprenticeship Committee in connection with the motor engineering trade was taken up early in the year, and the -committee, when established, immediately proceeded with the preparation of an apprenticeship order. It yvas not found possible to come to a complete agreement, as the workers’ representatives were not prepared to accept the rates of wages prescribed in existing orders for other districts. The

matter had ultimately to be referred to the Arbitration Court, which satisfactorily settled the points in issue. The legal position regarding Sunday sales of petrol from outside pumps was satisfactorily defined, as the result of a prosecution by the police of one of the members. As the decision given would have a Do-minion-wide effect the Council of the Motor Traders’ Association voted a substantial contribution towards the costs which had been incurred. Lengthy con-* sideration had been given at the last conference to the question of adopting a definite Dominion policy in regard to tyres, -and a considerable amount of attention was given to the subject at subsequent meetings of the association. In moving the adoption of the annual report the chairman said that the result of the efforts of the association during the past year was very satisfactory. A BLAZE OF PETROL. CHRISTCHURCH, August 29. There was a big blaze in Weka Pass, North Canterbury, this morning, when a Republic lorry, owned by Mr Stanley Wheatley, carrying a load of petrol and oil, caught fire. It was impossible to overcome the flames, and the lorry and its contents were completely destroyed. Mr- Wheatley, who formerly owned a petrol station in Shirley, has lately been carting petrol through the country districts in his lorry, which was fitted out like a pantechnicon. The volumes of dense smoke and flames completely blocked all traffic on the narrow Pass road. MENACE TO THE HIGHWAY. At the meeting of the Otago Motor Club last week the chairman (Mr A. E. Ansell) said that the executive had received a letter from Mr H. C. Campbell complaining of the reckless speeding of a number of motor cyclists on the main North road. The chairman said that he had made inquiry into Mr Campbell’s allegations, and had found that they were absolutely correct. Such conduct by these motor cyclists was going to make it vqjy unpleasant for motorists generally. Mr Campbell had stated that the cyclists had parsed him from the Brown House to the summit of the Mount Cargill road, and that they must have been travelling at 50 miles ah hour. One rider had just missed death by inches, missing a bus by an extremely narrow margin. The chairman said he must strongly protest on behalf of motorists generally against this kind of speeding, and that he hoped the authorities who had charge of the road would do their best to bring such offenders to book. Mr W. Wright said he had some knowledge of what had occurred. He believed that the speeding was the result of a rivalry between the owners of English and American machines.

TH Er S 3 FRvM GARS. WELLINGTON, August 29. William Henry Gardner, with a long list of previous convictions, was sent to prison for 12 months by Mr E. Page, S.M., for thefts from parked motor cats of articles of various kinds to the value of £46 2s 6d They were found by the police in a room. in which Gardner had been permitted to sleep by the proprietor of a private hotel. LORRY DRIVER CONVICTED. HAMILTON, August 30. A case arising out of a fatal accident at Te Arolia was concluded in the Supreme Court to-day when John Walker, the driver of a lorry which capsized on July 14, causing the death of a woman named Hiria Turawaho, was found guilty of negligent driving and not guilty of drunkenness while in charge of a motor car. He will be sentenced to-morrow. Mr Justice Blair, summing up, said there was a legal difference between being in a state of intoxication and being drunk. A man might be in a state of intoxication while walking along the road and yet not be liable to be locked up for drunkenness. He might, however, legally be regarded as in a state of intoxication when he happened to be in charge of a motor vehicle if he had imbibed sufficient liquor to render him incapable of properly performing the functions of a motor driver. There was evi ’.ence that the prisoner had imbibed seven or eight small whiski and there was evidence that after the accident the prisoner did little to assist lifting the lorry off the unfortunate woman who had broken her neck. On the other hand, they had medical evidence that he was able successfully to go through the tests for sobriety two hours after the accident. The vehicle, the evidence showed, was ill-equipped. In law, there was no difference between a man driving a well-equipped vehicle badly and driving a badly-equipped vehicle with care. A driver was negligent who knowingly took on a public read a vehicle in a defective state. The prisoner in this case knew that the brakes were defective. THE OFF-SIDE RULE. HAWERA, August 30. Tn a reserved decision to-day, Mr J. S. Barton, S.M., upheld a technicality raised by Mr A. A. Stewart, counsel for the defendant, on a charge of failing to observe the off-side rule requiring motor drivers to give way at street intersections to traffic approaching from the right. Counsel’s contention was that as the regulation specifically refers to intersections not under the control of a traffic officer in charge must be dismissed in the absence of proof by the prosecution that the intersection was not so controlled. 'The magistrate explained that it was open to the prosecution to negative that condition by inserting in the information such words as—“ the intersection not being controlled by a traffic officer ” —but otherwise proof of the absence of control was necessary. The information would be dismissed.

Old Rate. Current Rate. £ £ Duty . . . . 50 70 Body Tax . . 15 30 Total .. £65 or 321% £100 or 50% British or Canadian — Under Old Rafe. Current Rate. £ £ Duty at 10% .. 20 20 Body Tax .. .. 10 20