TEACH THEM YOUNG

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 639, 16 April 1929, Page 6

TEACH THEM YOUNG

CHILDREN AND SAFETY HINTS FOR MOTORING MEN Another school year has been ! started without any attempt being made by the motoring authorities to carry the gospel of safety into the schools of the city. ' Many months ago an elaborate i national safety scheme was enunciated ■ before the South Island (N.Z.) Motor Union, and a good deal was said about it at the time. Since then the music i has died away, and nothing on the subject has been heard from the then j enthusiastic originator of the scheme ! or from the union. The opinion was held by some that . the scheme, based on American for- j mulae, was too ambitious, indeed be-1 fore its time, and requiring a tremen- ’ dous amount of organisation. That was the scheme in general. But some of the details of the proposal were worth extracting from the general mass of ideas. One concerned teaching children in the schools the principles of safety on the streets. If our motoring organisations are as , keenly alive to the interests of the j motorists as they are supposed to be i then sur.ely they can give service through the schools. Anyone who does any motoring at j all must be impressed by the risks j taken by children in the thoroughfares. Now and then a child is j killed, and the old-time story is told that the child suddenly darted out of a gateway or ran across the road and I then hestitated. Is there no lesson ! in such a fatality for the mothers, the j teachers, and the leaders of our motor- j ing organisations? What are the motoring organisations doing in the important work of training pedestrians by teaching them in the schools? The suggestion is made to the council of the Auckland Automobile Association that it should make arrangements for one of its officers or someone else to visit the schools and lecture to the children on the art of walking and playing in safety. If the officers of the association have not got the time for this work it would be practicable to appoint a competent outsider to do the job. Here is an avenue of service. Will the association start something that will bring credit to it from all classes of the community? THROUGH THE AGES EVOLUTION OF THE CLOSED CAR There is a great contrast from the sedan of the days of Louise XV. to the richly upholstered, enclosed automobiles of to-day. In those days only the very richest people could afford to own carriages while nowadays the motor-car is becoming increasingly the accepted method of transportation for everyone. j In those small, highly-ornamented box-like affairs, the ladies of court were carried to formal functions by two servants who gripped handles in front and rear. In India to-day, virtually the same equipage, known as palanquins, still are used by some of the old Royalty. Following the sedan chair came the carruca, from which the modern name of carriage is derived. This was a partly-enclosed vehicle of gorgeous appointments, mounted originally on one wheel in the fashion of the wheelbarrow, but later on two and then four \ wheels. j Coming down to the comparatively modern period of the more utilitarian cabs and broughams, we find the style influence of these vehicles was markedly exerted on the construction of the earliest closed bodies of automobiles. The widely used Hausom cab was patented in 1834 by Henry Hansom and was used up to the time of the automobile s advent as a means of commercial transportation within communities. The brougham was a four-wheeled covered carriage with an outer driver’s seat, having the fore body cut under to allow short turning. The influences of this latter type perhaps was the most strongly felt in the early closed automobile bodies. For a number of years following the introduction of the automobile nothing but open models were manufactured. The industry was more than 15 years old before closed bodies made their appearance in any quantity. These early bodies, too, were designed primarily for simple weather protection with apparently no thought given to beauty of design or comfort of passengers. Within three or four years, however, some of the leading manufacturers began giving serious attention to style. At the beginning of the present motor-car season practically all manufacturers standardised on sleek, straight lines as a closed body style.