MOTOR NOTES.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LI, Issue 16918, 24 December 1925, Page 11

MOTOR NOTES.

PARKING PLACES WANTED. PALMERSTON NORTH’S PROBLEM

In keeping with many of the larger centres in New Zealand, Palmerston North is faced with the. problem of providing adequate parking facilities for the rapidly increasing number of motor-car owners in the district. One of the first things that strikes a visitor is tho surprisingly large number of motor-cuTs in use in the town. Every side of tho square is lined with vehicles during the Liisy hours, while on Saturdays it is a u'ondoi'ful sight, to observe hundreds of cars, packed closely together, in every conceivable parking place. On busy days it is with difficulty that the late arrivals can select a suitable spot, in which to leave his car, and with the approaching holiday season the problem will become very acute. T he Manawatu Automobile Association is urging that the Borough Council provide a camping ground near tho town for visiting motorists, and the last meeting of the council decided to give effect to the proposal. The question of selecting a suitable site ha:; been left in the luimls of Councillor Pitzherberl ami the curator (Air. P. Black).

THE SHEIK AND THE FORD CAR. Sir Samuel Hoare, the Air Minister, who was the principal guest at the Russell Hotel at the twelfth annual dinner of the Royal Alarine Old Comrades Association, made a contribution to the Ford car stories. An Arab Sheik was being taken across a very humpy patch of desert in Transjordania in a Ford car, and so bad was the going that at last, the car overturned and the Sheik was thrown out. Instead of turning in wrath upon his driver, the Arab picked himself up and apologised profusely, saying: “I’m so sorry, I have not. learned to ride one of these things yet.”

MOTORING INCREASE. SIR H. MAYBURY ON ROAD PROBLEMS. LONDON, Nov. s.—Sir Henry P. Maybury, Director-General of Roads. Ministry of Transport, speaking at Sutton, Surrey, said that the number of motor vehicles cm our highways was more than 1,500,000. This traffic was going to increase, and unless we had sufficient imagination to see what was going to happen we should got even a bigger block in tho traffic than we now contemplated. What we must aim at was an improvement and an enlargement of the highways. In his view, we should have a motor car to every 20 of the people in this country in the next ten years, compared with one to 57 now. Arrangements should be made in the vicinity of big towns to have garages provided by private individuals or by municipalities, and to see that they were self-supporting. The roads must keep pace with the requirements of the motor industry if that industry was to flourish, and it was to the interest of the country that it should flourish. NEW DANGER SIGN. The Royal Automobile Club is issuing a new road sign. It is diamondshaped. painted royal blue, with the words “Danger: Use Extra Caution,” in white. It is being issued to meet cases where it is thought that the ordinary red triangle docs not convey a sufficiently strong warning of exceptional danger, ■TO-MAKE MOTOR GASES HARMLESS. PARIS, Nov. (5. —Scientists have frequently of late issued warnings to city dwellers that they were nil undergoing a process of slow poisoning by gases discharged from motor vehicles. That the atmosphere in Paris, for instance, is charged with poison in sufficient quantities to be really dangerous has been demonstrated in the case of the trees which line the boulevards. They no longer flourish as they did in pre-motor days, but wither anil die in a comparatively short tiiqo now. It. is estimated that every day one milliard litres of carbon dioxide are discharged _ into the atmosphere of the city by its 40,000 motor vehicles. A well-known engineer, M. Boyar, has now discovered a way of preventing this evil. The invention is a catalvser fixed in the exhaust 1 chamber, which completes the combustion of tho cxlmfst gas before it is discharged into the air, so that only a little steam and carbonic acid are given off. An impressive demonstration of tho efficacy of his apparatus was given by the inventor before a jury of experts. A motor engine was saturated with oil and, when started, gave off a foul, oily smoke. This was conducted into the catalysing chamber, in which, as though by magic, all Its odor and color disappeared, and it was. so harmless that it could be inhaled without any ill effect. The inventor declares that there is no reason why his apparatus should add more than loof to the cost of a vehicle.

THE MOTOR-CAR. “Life is fleeting and the roadway Clearly shows 11s what we arc; ‘Dost thou art’—to dust all turning Sure was spoken of the car. “Passing motors all remind us We may make our pace sublime, And departing, leave behind us Cloudy stench and dusty grime. “Dusty grime which perhaps may smother Some poor traveller on the road, A mad, sneezing, blinded brother, Crying loudly, ‘You be blowod!’ “Carts to smash and tyres to borrow’ Are our destined end and way; Fare we worse or well, to-morrow’ Lot’s go faster than to-day. “Let us then btf up and doing— Traps or any other fate— Broken down, pursued, pursuing, _ Learn 1o scorch and learn to wait.” This delightful parody appears in The Life and Letters of William Bovd Carpenter, by H. D. A. Major D.D., Principal of Ripon Hall, Oxford.